A protest march piles pressure on the president
When a 250,000-strong crowd descended on Washington DC to march for jobs and freedom, they were entranced by MARTIN LUTHER KING JR’s dream for a different future
One of the figures who was catapulted to fame as a result of the Montgomery bus boycott was a previously unknown southern preacher, Martin Luther King Jr. He first came to prominence when he was voted head of the Montgomery Improvement Association, the community group that helped drive the boycott on.
But King took what could have been a local leadership role and transformed it into one of international importance. Jonathan Eig, who has written a new biography of the civil rights leader, says: “He was meant to be the person speaking to the media and leading church meetings, but over time it became clear that he was more than just a spokesman – he was also the strategic leader.”
Media magnet
After the success of Montgomery, the world was watching King – and he was determined to make the most of it. He supported protests across the country, from Albany to Atlanta. Eig says: “King knew that in some ways his greatest role was as a loudspeaker. The media would come wherever he went: he would get arrested, or lead a rally, or lead a march if that was what was needed.”
And in 1963 he lent his voice to one of the most famous protest marches ever staged: the March on Washington. The brainchild of veteran labour leader and activist A Philip Randolph, the march was designed to draw attention from far and wide, and twist President John F Kennedy’s arm over the issue of backing civil rights legislation.
On 28 August 1963, a multiracial crowd of more than 250,000 protesters flocked to Washington DC to march for jobs and freedom. I spoke to Clayborne Carson, the Martin Luther King Jr centennial professor emeritus at Stanford University, who attended the march as a 19-year-old student. He recalled: “It was the most exciting event of my life at that point.”
A range of speakers (all of whom were men) took to the podium. But it was one figure in particular whose words went down in history: the last speaker, Martin Luther King. When Carson heard King deliver his now famous ‘I Have a Dream’ speech at the march, he said: “I was very impressed – I had never heard anyone speak like that. But of course, just like everybody else, I didn’t know it was going to be a speech that people would remember 50 years later.”
The speech went on to become one of the most iconic moments of the civil rights movement. It began with King pointing out that, instead of honouring its “sacred obligation”, America had “given the Negro people a bad check”. But, according to Carson, it’s what King said in the second half of the speech that secured its place in history – and that’s because he didn’t stick to the script. “He gave a talk that he had been practising for months, and if he’d stopped there it would have been a decent speech, but we probably wouldn’t be talking about it today. But then he just went extemporaneous – and that’s when he starts getting into his dream.”
King’s powerful oratory, where he shared his hopes “that one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers”, was broadcast across the country. It resonated deeply with many, and the calls for civil rights legislation grew to a deafening roar.