Page 57 - All About History - Issue 12-14

“I have a dream”

afraid. “We didn’t know what we would meet. There One of the many trains from New York arrives
was no precedent. Sitting across from me was a at Washington’s Union Station for the march
black preacher with a white collar. We talked. Every
now and then, people on the bus sang Oh Freedom
and We Shall Overcome, but for the most part there
wasn’t a whole bunch of singing. We were secretly
praying that nothing violent happened.”
Kilimanjaro travelled over 480 kilometres
(300 miles) to attend the march. Many from
Birmingham, Alabama – where King was a
particularly prominent figure – travelled for more
than 20 hours by bus, covering 1,200 kilometres
(750 miles). Attendees had invested a great deal
of time, money and hope in the march, and
anticipation – nervous or otherwise – was high.
The headline speaker, Martin Luther King,
prominent activist, revered pastor and diligent
president of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference (SCLC) had yet to finalise his speech,
despite retiring to bed at 4am the previous night
after a long and wearied debate with his advisors.
“The logistical preparations for the march were so
burdensome that the speech was not a priority for
us”, King’s confidante and speechwriter Clarence B
Jones has since admitted.
It wasn’t until the evening before the march
that seven individuals, including Jones, gathered
together with King to give their input on the final
remarks. It was Jones’ job to take notes and turn
them into a powerful address that would captivate
the hearts and minds of the nation – no mean feat
as everyone at the meeting had a significant stake
in the speech and wanted their voice to be heard. “I
tried to summarise the various points made by all
of his supporters”, wrote Jones in his book, Behind
the Dream. “It was not easy; voices from every
compass point were ringing in my head.” According
to Jones, King soon became frustrated, telling his
advisors: “I am now going upstairs to my room to
counsel with my Lord. I will see you tomorrow.”
No doubt the magnitude of the task at hand
weighed heavy on King’s mind that night as he
tried to rest. By this point, King was a well-known
political figure, but few outside the black church
and activism circles had heard him speak publicly
at length. With the relatively newfangled television
networks preparing to project his image into the
homes of millions, King knew that he must seize
the unprecedented opportunity such a platform
presented for civil rights.
When he was finally called to the podium it was
clear King’s placement on the bill had put him at
an immediate disadvantage. An oppressively hot Folk singers Joan Baez and Bob
day was quickly draining the crowd’s enthusiasm Clarence Jones, one of Dylan singing at the 1963 Civil
and many had already left the march in order to King’s speech writers Rights March on Washington

1876-1960 1964 1991 2009
O Jim Crow Laws O The Civil Rights Act O A stronger act The first black president O
The enactment of racial One of the most sweeping pieces President George HW Barack Obama is sworn is
segregation laws create ‘separate of equality legislation seen in the Bush finally signs the Civil as the 44th president of
but equal’ status for African US, the Civil Rights Act prohibited Rights Act of 1991, which the United States – the
Americans, whose conditions discrimination of any kind and strengthens existing civil- first African American in
were often inferior to those gave federal government the rights law – but only after two history to become the
provided for white Americans. power to enforce desegregation. years of debates and vetoes. US president.
57