I Remember

Fifty years ago today, Dr. King stood before hundreds of thousands and spoke words that live and resound to this day.  

I remember the moment my sporadically wandering attention fixated, was captured by his words.  He addressed, they say, more than 200,000 men, women and children assembled in Washington DC at the Lincoln Memorial.

Attending via TV, I had been impressed,  proud, and grateful seeing the huge crowd of folk who had come from all over the country (even the world, I’m thinking) for that civil rights March on Washington on August 28, 1963.   A college graduate, married, with two small children, I was watching and listening from my home in Richmond Heights, Missouri. 

Before Dr. King was introduced, other notables had spoken, participating in the program organized to rally the nation to right a wrong.  There was a critical human condition issue in our nation caused by the continuing injustices endured by blacks because of the lack of freedoms strategically denied them.  Racial segregation and discrimination was a national sore, festering more in some communities than others, but as my father taught me, 'expect it'.  (Read my award winning memoir, Black Star Girl.)  So, listening, my mind wandered, driven by my own internal deliberations, I sort of tuned out what the leaders were proclaiming.  I knew and thought enough about our dire situation to begin mentally crafting all the reasons, the realities of why civil rights progress sought would not be forthcoming for us, for a long time.  My skepticism reigned.    Congress would essentially ignore, proceed at their pitiful speed to let politics rule, not give the President the support he would need. 

Then Dr. King moved from his already dynamic, informative words into the “I have a dream” cadence and I was totally hooked.  My thoughts became his thoughts.  Why shouldn’t it happen?  Why wouldn’t equality be established for all citizens, regardless of color or heritage? The cameras panned showing enthusiasm -  mixed with faces, black and white, frozen in wonder.  I remember thinking, “will tomorrows news convey the spectacular moment this is?” *

It didn’t matter.  From that moment on, I was absolutely hopeful.  And, less than a year later, on July 2^nd, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

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To find Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s speech, type ‘I have a dream’ in your Internet search line.

*I’ve discovered, even though the 8/29/63 Washington Post gave fine front-page coverage to the previous day’s March on Washington, it did not mention the now iconic “I Have a Dream” speech.