60th Anniversary of the March on Washington

August 28th is the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom where the moral leader of our nation, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered the famed I Have a Dream speech. Todays episode commemorates this day with a replay of the speech by President Barack Obama at the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. 

He reminds us of “that steady flame of conscience and courage” that fuels the struggle; and that we would dishonor those hero’s who gave their lives if we, “suggest that the work of this nation is some how complete.” Where do we find that steady flame of conscience and courage today?

It took a hundred years from the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation to get to the March on Washington. As civil rights legend Ronnie Moore has said “this is a hundred year struggle.”  And we are only sixty years in, what can we do over the course of the next 40 years to make real the vision of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. proclaimed on August 28, 1963.

 

Count Time Podcast – The 60th Anniversary of the March on Washington

 

Selected quotes and notes from Count Time Podcast with LD Azobra – The March on Washington

 

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, also known as simply the March on Washington or The Great March on Washington,^[1][2] was held in Washington, D.C., on August 28, 1963.^[3] The purpose of the march was to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African Americans. At the march, final speaker Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial, delivered his historic “I Have a Dream” speech in which he called for an end to racism.^[4]

 

 

The march was organized by A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin, who built an alliance of civil rights, labor, and religious organizations^[5] that came together under the banner of “jobs and freedom.”^[6] Estimates of the number of participants varied from 200,000 to 300,000,^[7] but the most widely cited estimate is 250,000 people.^[8] Observers estimated that 75–80% of the marchers were black.^[9] The march was one of the largest political rallies for human rights in United States history.^[6] Walter Reuther, president of the United Auto Workers, was the most integral and highest-ranking white organizer of the march.^[10][11]

 

The march is credited with helping to pass the Civil Rights Act of 1964.^[12][13] It preceded the Selma Voting Rights Movement, when national media coverage contributed to passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 that same year.

 

Catalyst for the March were the success of mass movements and demonstrations across the U.S. and the Centennial signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. The Emancipation Proclamation, officially Proclamation 95, was a presidential proclamation and executive order issued by United States President Abraham Lincoln on January 1, 1863, during the American Civil War. The Proclamation changed the legal status of more than 3.5 million enslaved African Americans in the secessionist Confederate states from enslaved to free.