This past Wednesday marked the anniversary of the March on Washington in 1963, a historic event in the Civil Rights Movement which brought a quarter of a million people to the Lincoln Memorial and the Mall.
There were many speeches that day and a solo by the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, a long-time friend of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who often sang at his rallies. King was the last of the speakers and he began working from carefully prepared notes. His address seemed somewhat stilted and cerebral, and then this:
Mahalia Jackson intervening at a critical junction when she decided King’s speech needed a course-correction. Recalling a theme she had heard him use in earlier speeches, Jackson said out loud to Martin Luther King Jr., from behind the podium on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, “Tell them about the dream, Martin.” And at that moment, as can be seen in films of the speech, Dr. King leaves his prepared notes behind to improvise the entire next section of his speech—the historic section that famously begins “And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream….”
Mahalia Jackson and Martin Luther King Jr.
Who else could have done this other than a dear friend whose own faith and ministry through music emboldened her to invite Dr. King, an accomplished orator, to change course and offer what was arguably his most famous and inspiring speech?
After the rally Event organizers met with President John Kennedy and Vice President Lyndon Johnson at the White House. No women, not Rosa Parks or Mahalia Jackson,nor Coretta King were included. Where would the Civil Rights Movement have been without them and so many more?
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