This past weekend thousands gathered in Washington DC to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the March on Washington in 1963. This has also been called the Emancipation March, because 1963 marked the 100th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation.
Today is the actual anniversary of that momentous gathering of roughly a quarter million people protesting the inequalities of race in America. It culminated in a planned speech which became famous for the extemporaneous conclusion spurred by singing great Mahalia Jackson calling out "tell them about the dream Martin!" Is there any more memorable speech in history than the I Have a Dream oration by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Junior? The biblical allusions in this speech, particularly Psalm 30 and Isaiah 40, are stirring.
We now know that the Kennedy administration was very anxious about this assembly at the Lincoln Memorial. In the four months before the march more than 1300 protests had occurred in 200 cities and the anger of black Americans was rising as they were subjected to police brutality and four little girls died in a deliberately set fire. The prospect of a riot led the administration to put pressure on black leaders to change their plans. Kennedy figured he might lose the opportunity to pass civil rights legislation if violence erupted.
Despite these undercurrents the march and assembly took place and became an iconic event of the Civil Rights movement. The commitment to non-violent protest, inspired both by the gospel and Gandhi, held, and no doubt many gathered for prayer beforehand, which was the practice before protests.
Do any of you want to admit to recalling the events of that year? Any thoughts from those of you who are US history buffs? What about the centrality of faith in this movement?
Take a look at this from Religion & Ethics Weekly http://www.pbs.org/wnet/religionandethics/2013/08/23/august-23-2013-march-on-washington-50th-anniversary/19795/
The video - this coming together of all the ministers is good to see ... it is hard work, to really see and listen to the other side(s) , as we in the UCC can attest, from our Native reconciliation processes...but it is necessary - especially for us North American white folk of European descent - history shows that we are the ones who took land unfairly from the Native population, and subjected them to assimilation , then kidnapped Africans and brought them,against their will, to be slaves, reducing them to less than animal status.... I don't think too many Canadians at the time had much more respect for the salves than the Americans did. And we still suspect non- whites of being of less value, and of less ability, as our justice system demonstrates at times.
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