While walking on the grass of Washington, D.C.’s National Mall on Aug. 28, 1963, then-31-year-old Civil Rights leader Andrew Young’s main goal was to ensure that peace remained instilled among marchers and other personnel in attendance.
The March on Washington that day 60 years ago was a Civil Rights march that brought hundreds of thousands of Americans to the nation’s capitol to protest racism and advocate for the economic and voting rights of African Americans. It was revolutionary for its time.
For event coordinators in attendance like Young, the march created a feeling of unity and anticipation, but also a fear of violence or the harassment of marchers.
He and his colleagues, including late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, Civil Rights leader Hosea Williams and event speaker Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., quickly discovered that there was no need to panic about the latter occurring.
“It turned out to be very peaceful,” Young, the former Atlanta mayor and U.N. ambassador, told WABE. “The March on Washington really excited the hopes and dreams of everybody … that all men were born with certain inalienable rights; life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Young was already fighting Civil Rights violations throughout the South in the 1950s and early ’60s when he was first approached to assist with the event. He was surprised by the huge turnout, with an estimated 250,000 marchers of various ages and races in attendance.
“What [Dr. King] would say was … ‘One day the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners would sit down at a table of brotherhood,’” said Young. “The Bible was brought by the Black folks, and [copies] of the Constitution were brought by lawyers.”
While that singular day has been embedded in American history, the historical event was part of a civil and human rights battle that was over 20 years in the making.
Young noted that in the early 1940s, Civil Rights…
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