March on Washington

Today in class, we watched a 53 minute video, The March, a recent award winning documentary narrated by Denzel Washington. The actual march itself that took place in 1963, specifically with the struggle for African American rights, became a model for other struggles, acting as a jet stream to push everything else along, like women’s rights, the student’s free speech movement, the sex/drugs/rock and roll movement, and the free love movement. The movement had really taken off.

Birmingham, Alabama was the most segregated city in the country, being nicknamed “bombingham”, as lots of people were masters in terms of dynamite. Being described as the most “horrible heinous place” in the world, offensive actions would be taken place every day. The movie described a couple that went into town to apply for a marriage license, the man accidentally brushed shoulders with a police officer, and ended up being struck to the ground by his pistol. Fast forwarding to when MLK got arrested, the movement was being saved and further pushed on by young people who entered the birmingham story. After his time in jail, he went around the country, trying to convince people that a national protest was needed, that it shouldn’t just be a fight for Alabama but rather for nationwide. Despite the great amount of effort, there wasn’t much progress, as people started to become impatient. A statement that also hindered the progress was made by governor George Wallace, claiming he did not want any African Americans to attend to University of Alabama. In June of 1963, hundreds of cities had demonstrations break out. A bill was eventually passed on ending segregation, as the video quotes they had to “...just bite the bullet and pass a bill...”.

Meanwhile, MLK was continuing his tour around the country, and the official announcement for a peaceful, non violent march on Washington came out. Determined to “be free in 63”, he contacted President Kennedy right away to meet with him. After some of Kennedy’s partners being reluctant in the decision due to the fear of the march becoming violent, Kennedy joined the movement. Since the two men, MLK and Kennedy, had their best interests in mind, he took MLK aside and warned him that there were 2 communist leaders, and it would be crucial to get rid of them immediately. Deciding between losing presidential support or losing 2 friends, MLK let one of the men go, this man being Mr. O’Dell.

The morning had finally arrived; August 28 was the morning of the march. Plenty of banners were made and by lunch time, 200,000 people arrived. Blacks and whites were in the same space, colors integrated for the first time, with no violence whatsoever. MLK’s speech at the event was captivating, almost tying every other speech he’s ever given and wrapping them all up into a blanket of this new powerful speech he delivered on Washington. 10 hours later from the start of that morning, the leaders all gathered into the White House to reflect on the day and how to move forward. In June of 1964, the Civil Rights Act was passed by Kennedy.

I was really glad that we got to watch this movie in class. When his final speech was being given, I couldn’t help but have flashbacks to when I was younger to the day when Obama was elected as the first black president, and how huge and impactful it was. My father told me to remember how great that day was and what a great time to be alive it was. I can’t imagine how moved people felt who lived in the day when MLK was alive.