As the date for the march approached, nearly everyone feared that it
would become a colossal failure. While congressmen worried about so many
black protesters in one place, Rustin worried about falling short of the goal
of 100,000 marchers. The attorney general worried that a small turnout
would make the president look bad. To spread word of the rally, local
churches and civil rights chapters made announcements and hired ‘freedom’
trains and buses. As white churches became involved, the organizers worried
that too many whites would show up. To prevent any civil disturbance, city
police had their leaves canceled, and the administration put federal troops on
standby. Storekeepers hid their goods in warehouses, and the city’s liquor
stores were shut down for the first time since Prohibition. Area hospitals
delayed elective surgery. Government workers were urged to stay home to
keep the streets clear for the incoming demonstrators.
These fears proved groundless. Early in the morning of Wednesday,
28 August 1963, 21 special trains, 1,514 buses, and countless car pools
brought 250,000 marchers to Washington from places such as Birmingham,
Chicago, Cincinnati, Detroit, Gary, Jacksonville, New York, Miami, Philadelphia,
Pittsburgh, and St Louis. Many of the excited passengers stayed up all night
singing and clapping freedom songs, such as ‘Woke up this morning
with my mind set on freedom. Hallelu, hallelu, hallelujah!’ An 82-year-old
rode his bicycle from Dayton, Ohio, and another man roller-skated from
Chicago with a red sash reading ‘Freedom.’ The majority of the marchers
were middle-class blacks; a quarter were white; and 15 per cent were
students. Clergy from every faith came too. Altogether, they comprised the
largest and best-remembered demonstration in American history.
To warm up the crowd at the Washington Monument, Joan Baez, Odetta,
Josh White, Peter, Paul and Mary, and SNCC’s Freedom Singers from Albany
sang movement favorites and Bob Dylan’s new hit song, ‘Blowin’ in the
Wind,’ a paean to the civil rights movement. After two hours of music, the
crowd grew impatient in the sweltering heat and followed a drum-and-bugle
corps to the Lincoln Memorial ahead of schedule. ‘Freedom Now,’ the crowd
chanted. The civil rights leaders hurried back from lobbying for Kennedy’s
bill on Capitol Hill to ‘lead’ the advancing throng, but they never got to
the front. Once in place, the leaders locked arms with march co-chairs
Walter Reutherof the UAW, Eugene Carson Blake of the National Council
of Churches, Mathew Ahmann of the National Catholic Conference for
Interracial Justice, and Joachim Prinz of the American Jewish Congress. A
galaxy of stage and screen stars followed, including Harry Belafonte, Marlon
Brando, Diahann Carroll, Ossie Davis, Sammy Davis, Jr., Ruby Dee, Anthony
Franciosa, James Garner, Dick Gregory, Charlton Heston, Dennis Hopper,
Lena Horne, Burt Lancaster, Rita Moreno, Paul Newman, Sidney Poitier,
Jackie Robinson, Susan Strasberg, and Joanne Woodward. The stars ignored90 THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT
Reuther, Walter(1907–
70): UAW president and
financial backer of civil
rights campaigns.