March on Washington 91the FBI’s insistent telephone calls not to participate because of the potential
danger. A sea of humanity walked closely behind the stars, singing ‘We Shall
Overcome’ and carrying approved placards reading, ‘WE DEMAND EQUAL
RIGHTS NOW!’
The media gave unprecedented coverage to the March on Washington,
surpassing Kennedy’s presidential inauguration. More than 2,000 journalists
reported on the celebrities and the unjust laws that still circumscribed black
life. Overseas newspapers, including Moscow’s Izvestia, made the march their
lead news story. The CBS television network canceled lucrative all-white
game shows and soap operas to beam the rally into American homes for three
hours from 1.30 to 4.30 p.m. The Voice of America, a US government propa-
ganda agency, and Britain’s television news carried the march live, and the
rest of the world watched the amazing spectacle as it was simulcast by Telstar,
the new communications satellite.
The march’s carefully laid plans nearly unraveled when word leaked about
the apocalyptic speech that SNCC’s John Lewis planned to give. After
Kennedy’s Justice department, not Georgia prosecutors, obtained indict-
ments against nine Albany picketers, Lewis demanded to know ‘which side
is the federal government on?’ To pressure Washington, he threatened a
‘march through the South, through the heart of Dixie, the way Sherman did.
We shall pursue our own “scorched earth” policy and burn Jim Crow to the
ground – nonviolently.’ The speech stung too much for the president, who
called SNCC ‘sons of bitches’ and insisted that the incendiary rhetoric be
watered down. Catholic archbishop Patrick O’Boyle of Washington threat-
ened to cancel his invocation unless Lewis’s language was softened. Reverend
Blake, Eisenhower’s personal pastor, took umbrage at such radical terms as
‘revolution’ and ‘the masses.’ While Rustin stalled for time, Randolph almost
cried as he told Lewis, ‘I’ve waited all my life for this opportunity. Please don’t
ruin it.’ Chastened, Lewis revised the speech just before his scheduled
appearance, giving the march a veneer of unity.
After Lewis, the parade of speakers and singers continued as the good-
natured crowd fanned themselves or soaked their feet in the Lincoln
Memorial’s reflecting pool. The New York Timesreported that ‘for many the
day seemed an adventure, a long outing in the late summer sun – part libera-
tion from home, part Sunday School picnic, part political convention, part
fish-fry.’ All of the top civil rights leaders spoke, except James Farmer, who
was in a Louisiana jail. As an afterthought, Randolph briefly introduced the
heroines of the movement, including Rosa Parks, Daisy Bates, Diane Nash,
and Gloria Richardson. Marian Anderson returned to the scene of her great
triumph and sang ‘He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.’ Gospel great
Mahalia Jackson delivered such a moving rendition of the spiritual, ‘I Been
’Buked and I Been Scorned,’ that well-dressed businessmen and old women