beautiful day
Not a cloud in sky as far as the eye can see there were just people
It just blew everybody away we had no idea there would be
250,000 people there
mothers with babies and strollers church women with their church happen and
pocketbooks and Fancy shoes [and] it
Was walking down the street [like] you were moving as part of [a] glacier?
At that time the largest template of people in one spot in the history of the United States
I
Had no expectation that I was preparing to step into
An event that was going to transform my entire life to be
face to face in side by side with people who had made decisions to go up in the face of
the police state atmosphere of the deep south in order to get [change]
Was an overcoming called me
What I was looking for was the spirit what the dr
King called the beloved community we had never worked on anything of that magnitude
Finally there was going to be a coalition of the civil rights groups which is what we had been hoping for for many years
We had a sense that we had slogged through some very terrible things it went in a way
There was a huge release on that day. I think there are some times when you know something is going to be historic
Remember was hot I remember what I was wearing I
Remember singing, and I remember that ocean of people
Seen anything like it. I remember the
electricity in the Air
music Had become the
soundtrack of the American Conscience and
particularly folk music more than more than anything and
It was everywhere
Whatever the perfect storm was it made civil rights anti-war
movement the music the woodstock it then included all ages and when people heard that and
They sang that music together it provided present a moment where they weren't simply in order they were
Even if they go on with their daily life they can say I'm a part of this without being
You know a quad carrying member of an organization many of the speakers were people whose names were familiar
But you never would get a chance to see them. It wasn't just they were
sympathetic
And very much involved in the ideas of the struggle was that that's what they really were
And they were artists when they were superstars and that you could be both
Powerfully receives Force and you can say the right thing you can have a moral
Point of view I've always resented people who said it was a picnic
It was a day of solidarity and as a byproduct of that
They saw wonderful things if you've traveled all night on a bus and you see harry belafonte
Thanks a nice thing or if you hear Bobby Dylan sing yeah
but
Nobody got the same reaction that John Lewis Scott in his speech, or that Dr.
King got I was aware that this was a time that
John Lewis and Dr.. King, they were coming into their own is this is the first time most white people
Watching this on television had ever seen Dr.. King. Give a full speech
So it was sort of breaking barriers to under white people's understanding of the civil rights movement
They could not have been done probably in any other way everybody's not equal. Everybody can't both
You know don't have the same shot at raising the family with the future. I resolved at that moment
I was going to be active I was going to be a part of changing the country and
Raising these demands and licking my boys with people who were doing everything they could it was a procession of church
It was never ever emerge. It was a congregation that
Had was answering a call not the speaks in itself
But the gathering that the speech was being given for the gathering
I
couldn't believe you know you know I've been there for a whole week and
we worked [enough] as we've done all these things and
now to see black fly
In a hispanic you know all religion the being there
It was a it was a very touching moment for us
In the end the day was a complete win with
Kennedy's hedo huge
sigh of relief that there was not one act of violence and
See at the end everybody saying we shall overcome and all the arms linked
He said it often but it's worth saying as often as necessary
There wasn't a dry eye in the house
