Recalling 1963 and the March
The days of the year two thousand and twenty are difficult as the Covid-19 pandemic ravishes our nation. The spread of this new virus also exacerbates and reveals the prevalence or our nation's pandemic of systemic economic and racial injustice. As we prepare for a new march on Washington, it is important to recall our past with a glimpse of 1963.
The 88th Congress of the United States convened in January with twelve women and eight people of color in the House of Representatives, and two women and three people of color in the Senate. Nine years following the Supreme Court ruling that separate is not equal on Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, George Wallace, the governor of Alabama, began 1963 by declaring, "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever." Months later, he attempted to block the entry of two African-American students at the University of Alabama. The following night, Medgar Evers arrived home in Mississippi to be murdered in his driveway. In the same year, Martin Luther King, wrote his Letter from A Birmingham Jail in response to white clergy wanting him to use only the courts to address racial injustice. Less than three weeks after the original March on Washington, Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church was bombed and four girls - Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley - were murdered. Two months later, television allowed the nation to witness the assassination of John Kennedy.
On August 28 of that year, Martin Luther King, Jr. was 34. Nancy Pelosi and John Lewis were 23. Mitch McConnell was 21; Joe Biden 20; Donald Trump 17; John Roberts 8; Mike Pence 4. Barack Obama had just celebrated his second birthday, and Kamala Harris had not been born. What about you? Your story?
Anniversaries call us to reflect upon significant moments in time. We remember an event, the circumstances of its unfolding, consider the changes that have or have not occurred, and recommit to our ideals with a renewed fervor. This is what we are doing now on the 57th anniversary of the historic March on Washington
In 1963, the descendants of those Africans who had been kidnapped, involuntarily transported through the Middle Passage, and sold as chattel with their lives deemed solely for the economic gain of others, answered a call. For more than three centuries they had been told that their dreams and desires were irrelevant, that according to the laws of God and of man, there Black lives did not matter. On this day, they prayed with their feet as they marched to the Lincoln Memorial to affirm their humanity and demand their full rights as citizens of this nation. For 100 years, the systems based upon the flawed construct of race proved to be formidable forces against the promises of the Emancipation Proclamation, as well as the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments.
The call of the 1963 March on Washington was answered with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but economic and racial injustice have persisted. This persistance is chronicled in the disparities and inequities of citizenship, education, healthcare, economic opportunities, and immigration.
Today, the world sees that these problems are not confined to certain states or regions of our nation. As Black lives continue to be valued less than property, the economic greed and systemic injustices of the privileges flourish from sea to shining sea. Despite the obstacles, the great cloud of witnesses proclaims with us, "Black Lives Matter."