It’s a time for doing what we can, as this election cycle turns into the homestretch, all the competitors lengthening their strides, accelerating for a possible photo finish. The heat on the track is increasing.
Most of the things we do as individual citizens, however heartfelt and even passionate, seem small-scale. The larger sweep of events, and our own ability to bend them, seem out of reach.
It’s better when we gather, reminding ourselves that we are not solitary in our concern. There are others – seeable, speakable, smileable. True now, and true in the past. True in small scale, true in large scale.
Here is an excerpt from the official program for the 1963 March on Washington, another time when people of good purpose – 250,000 of them – gathered for, as they said, “more than just a demonstration.” The time had come, they said, for the government to grant and guarantee complete equality in citizenship. The leadership of the March called for discipline in the face of perilous times.
“…the Washington March is a living petition, in the flesh, of the scores of thousands of citizens of both races who will be present from all parts of our country.
“It will be orderly, but not subservient. It will be proud, but not arrogant. It will be non-violent, but not timid. It will be unified in purposes and behavior, not splintered into groups and individual competitors. It will be outspoken, but not raucous.
“It will have the dignity befitting a demonstration on behalf of the human rights of twenty millions of people, with the eye and the judgment of the world focused on August 28, 1963.
“In a neighborhood dispute there may be stunts, rough words and even hot insults; but when a whole people speaks to its government, the dialogue and the action must be on a level reflecting the worth of that people and the responsibility of that government.”
American democracy is on the ballot in just a month, and the “eye and the judgment of the world” is focused on our country. It is decidedly not a neighborhood dispute. In some lights the results appear a likely toss-up. It is another perilous time.
The more we gather with our fellow-citizens, as happened in 1963, the more we can hearten and encourage each other. We can hope such gatherings will be orderly, proud, non-violent, unified, and outspoken, and that they can have dignity. They need not lack passion.
The last strong-hearted mass gathering I remember was the Women’s March. Are there options for gathering now? How can we boost our horse over the finish line? Gather in groups small and large? Throw our energy into the fray? Shout louder, and together?
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The statement quoted above was signed by the heads of ten organizations at the 1963 March on Washington. Among those signatories: Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. John Lewis, Chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Walter Reuther, President of the UAW. Whitney M. Young, Jr., Executive Director of the National Urban League. A. Philip Randolph, President of the Negro American Labor Council. Roy Wilkins, Executive Secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Note, Minnesotans, that Wilkins was a graduate of the UMN School of Journalism and Mass Communications, and of Mechanic Arts High School. His namesake auditorium is in downtown Saint Paul.
Thanks to Dr. Amelious N. Whyte, of the College of Liberal Arts and the University of Minnesota, for reading the March program excerpts at a recent encourage-the-vote gathering.
Photo of 2017 Women’s March in St. Paul, MN by the author. Historical photo –During the March on Washington a crowd stretches from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument
Caption reads, “[View of the huge crowd from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument, during the March on Washington]” Original black and white negative by Warren K. Leffler. Taken August 28th, 1963, Washington D.C, United States (@libraryofcongress).