March on Washington; Celebrity Participation in the March on Washington; Part 5 of 17

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Transcript

Marlon Brando on the March

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Geesey:

This is George Geesey again in Washington as the ERN continues its

coverage of this March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Let's check

again at the Lincoln steps to find the flavor how the group is

organizing and assembling around the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. We

call in reporter Al Hulsen.

Hulsen:

You hear the applause in the background more and more. The dignitaries

are coming. That applause was for Mahalia Jackson. At the moment, some

informal entertainment is underway. We heard from Odetta, the folk

singer. Then a rendition of "Oh Freedom." We might just mention that

the current edition of Newsweek and it's dated September 2nd several

days from now has a story about this March on Washington that's written

both in the future, present and past tense. And it includes one

interesting paragraph.

It says, "For those who couldn't come, there were sympathy marches on

state houses at home and in U.S. embassies abroad. In Paris the much

lionized James Baldwin in temporary retreat from the race struggle

while he finishes a play, joined the walk from the American Church on

the Quai d'Orsay to the Embassy. It's interesting to know that Mr.

Baldwin is here in person on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, and

Dave Edwards is attempting to corner him for an interview over the

Educational Radio Network. Let's briefly go to the stage to hear some

of this informal entertainment.

Davis:

Camilla Williams.

Camilla Williams singing "Oh What a Beautiful City."

Hulsen:

We're going to cut away here for a moment and go to Dave Edwards. It

isn't Mr. Baldwin, but we understand that he's trying to reach Marlon

Brando. He's now working...

Edwards:

This is David Edwards at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial. With me is

Marlon Brando, the world renowned movie actor. Mr. Brando, can you tell

me why you're here today?

Brando:

Yes, I can tell you why we're here. I can speak for myself as a private

citizen. All of us from Hollywood have come as a private citizen

representing no group, no political party and no specific point of

view. We're here as Americans to give the full support that we can in

every way to the legislation that is now pending before Congress

because we believe it to be right.

Edwards:

Would you go beyond that and support the direct action projects

undertaken by especially students, Negro, and white in the South today?

Brando:

I think that any action that is lawfully provided for by the

Constitution is something that should be fully supported and should be

participated in. Those are my own views.

Edwards:

What are your impressions of the demonstration thus far today?

Brando:

I think they have been impressive. I think that the number of people

here. Of course, this is an historical unprecedented occasion. At no

time in the history of America have this number of people assembled in

Washington with a single cause such as civil rights. I can't think of

any. Can you?

Edwards:

No, I can't.

Brando:

No, this is the only time that such a thing has happened in history. I

think it's momentous. It's impressive and I think it tells the world

that there are Americans that do care. It tells Negroes that there are

whites that do care.

Edwards:

It's been striking the number of Hollywood personalities who have

expressed support for this demonstration if even some of them have been

unable to attend. Does this indicate a new awareness on the part of

many of these people of the importance of the civil rights question

today, do you think?

Brando:

I think it indicates a new awareness on the part of all people. We are

here because a woman by the name of Rosa Parks stood up in the back of

the bus in Montgomery, Alabama, walked down to the front, and sat down

in a chair. And, when the bus driver said, "Nigger, you'll have to get

in the back of the bus," she said, "I'm not moving." And as a result of

that, the Montgomery bus boycott began. Martin Luther King's Freedom

Rides and sit-ins began, and finally here you are talking to me and I'm

here doing my best to try to advance this cause.

Edwards:

Some people suggest every so often that people like you could make an

ever greater contribution if more of the products turned out by the

movie makers in Hollywood concerned controversial social questions like

the race question. Do you think this is a legitimate argument and do

you think it's a possibility?

Brando:

I don't know that it is an argument. I certainly adhere and I'm in

accord with all that you say in that respect. There are plans afoot to

accelerate these issues and bring them before the public in every way

possible. People like Johnny Carson, Jack Paar, Steve Allen, David

Susskind. All of these people are interested in presenting this point

of view fairly and using their good offices and programs for a

revelation of little known facts about this issue to be brought before

the court of American Society.

Edwards:

How about expressions of their own personal values as well?

Brando:

They've done that. Jack Paar has expressed himself to me about that.

Johnny Carson has given support to this. Steve Allen certainly has a

great interest in this. Well, I could go on and on with the number of

people that have supported this all the way down the line.

Edwards:

Do you foresee any future activities on your part of one or another

sort in support of this movement for civil rights?

Brando:

Yes, this program is going to really step out wide and handsome now.

There was some discussion today on the bus for the first time about

actors trying to get their films prevented from being shown in

segregated theaters. And I think that that is a very clear answer to

those detractors and the people who have taken our interest lightly and

who feel that this is just a publicity cause. We don't stand to gain

any money by that. We stand to lose something. But I think that the

negroes have lost for 150 years, and I think that we should share their

sense of loss and their sense of gain.

Edwards:

Thank you very much, Marlon Brando.

Hulsen:

You can hear the informal entertainment continuing. That was Peter,

Paul, and Mary who just finished that particular song. And we have with

us now a member of the DC Chapter of the Red Cross to give us some

information about what kind of work they've been doing today. Has it

been a rough day for you?

Red Cross Rep:

Yes, it's been, well not too rough. Nothing we can't handle. We came

prepared and so we can take care of any situation that arises. We have

the able assistance of the United States Public Health people and the

DC Health Department plus the Army Medical Corps. So we are well

staffed and well equipped and we're ready for anything that might

arise.

Hulsen:

How many ill people have you found yourself?

Red Cross Rep:

Myself? Actually, I haven't found anybody yet. I keep hearing reports

of people who are at different places, but by the time we are able to

get there through this crowd, the military has already taken care of

them.

Hulsen:

Can you give us any indication of numbers?

Red Cross Rep:

I have no idea.

Hulsen:

Do you have the facilities that are needed?

Red Cross Rep:

Yes, we do.

Hulsen:

Now, let's go back to the stage.

Peter, Paul and Mary singing "If I had a Hammer." Singing "If I Had a

Hammer" con't.

Hulsen:

George, maybe at this time you'd like to go somewhere else in

Washington.

Congressmen Respond to the March

Geesey:

Yes, thanks, Al. That gives the flavor of what's happening there at the

Lincoln steps as this multitude of people gathers for these ceremonies,

which are about fifty minutes away if we are on the right time table.

We've been hearing from Hollywood stars. We've had interviews from some

of the ERN reporters with people who are there to march. They've given

their personal feelings. But also, there's been support for this March

on Washington from Congressmen and other officials. Senator Paul

Douglas, for instance, Democrat of Illinois was interviewed recently by

the ERN in his office on Capitol Hill. And Senator Douglas was asked

whether he could expect a Civil Rights Bill to be passed this session.

Douglas:

I'm not pessimistic. I'm not optimistic. I pride myself on being a

realist. Now in order to get a bill both Republicans and Democrats have

got to work together. That's number one. In the House, our difficulty

is in the Rules Committee of fifteen members; five Northern Democrats,

Five Southern Democrats, and Five Republicans. It's obvious that the

Republicans go with the Southern Democrats.

In order to get a bill out, it's necessary for the Northern Democrats

and the Republicans to combine. Once you get a bill on the floor of the

House I think it will pass once it gets by the Rules Committee. In the

Senate, if we could ever bring a measure to a vote, we would get a

majority.

But, it's very difficult to break a filibuster in the Senate. The

senators will engage in interminable discussion, and you can only limit

debate by a two-thirds vote not a majority vote. And there is

difficulty or going to be great difficulty in getting two-thirds

because the South will stand almost as a unit in protection of the

right of unlimited debate. There'll be support, which they will get

from the old border states of Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware.

I guess some support from the Southwest, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and

Arizona. Nevada has always been an ally of the South. Some of the other

mountain states will help. And then the wheat senators tend to have an

alliance with the South. The South helps them on wheat, they help the

South with tobacco and cotton, and there is an alliance. So that I

simply say, there are tremendous obstacles to overcome. Nevertheless,

many of us will do our very best.

Geesey:

Senator Paul Douglas, Democrat of Illinois. He was also asked in the

same interview about his reaction to today's March for Jobs and

Freedom.

Douglas:

It's really a march in Washington rather than a march on Washington. As

I understand it, the plans especially forbid any march on the Capitol

or on the Congress. The assembly points will be a mile to the west of

the Capitol, south of the White House on the Ellipse or still south of

that at Washington Monument, groups will assemble there, then they'll

march down to the Lincoln Memorial and the meeting will be held there.

I think it will be a peaceful march, a lot of technical details to work

out, which I think can be handled. I think it's going to be a success.

ERN Reporter:

Do you think it will influence the votes of any people in Congress?

Douglas:

Without question.

Geesey:

Congressman Emanuel Celler is from New York. He had this statement

about the President's Civil Rights bill.

Celler:

The Kennedy Bill as submitted to Congress is a good bill. It perhaps

lacks certain features, which we will try to insert in the bill. For

example, an FEPC. An FEPC is much coveted and desired by liberal people

all over the country. It may present some difficulty when we reach the

passage stage, but nonetheless, I think it's essential to have an FEPC

in the bill. In the 1957 Act, which incidentally there is my name in

the Celler Civil Rights Act of 1957. We put in that bill a provision

known as Part 3, which gives the Attorney General to show out by way of

an injunction for the protection and erosion of rights for any

individual who felt aggrieved. And that was stricken out of the 1957

Act in the Senate although it passed the House. I believe it's

essential to get that back into the 1963 Bill, to make the strong bill

even stronger.

Edwards:

And you believe that these provisions will be in the bill at least as

it leaves the Judiciary Committee?

Celler:

I cannot prophesy that. I hope that will be the case.

Geesey:

Congressman and Emanuel Celler of New York was also asked by ERN

Reporter, David Edwards, to comment on Negro protest demonstrations

that have taken place in the past.

Celler:

If I were a member of the colored race, and I was subject to all the

humiliations, the ostracism, and the obloquy, I might have so many

sanctions involved against me I certainly would do exactly as they did

and rebel. And they are rebelling and that rebellion is quite

understandable.

Geesey:

Senator Kenneth Keating, a Republican from New York State has stated

his view of the Civil Rights Bill for ERN listeners.

Keating:

Well, in the first place I support all of the provisions of the bill

submitted by the Administration. Nearly all of them are the subject of

legislation, which I and several others have had in Congress for years.

And, I'm very glad that the President has now so forcefully sent a bill

to us. There are some respects, I must say, in which I feel a bill

should be strengthened. For one thing, the bill does not in any way

deal with the greatest problem of discrimination with which we're faced

namely in the field of jobs.

And I feel strongly that since the Negroes today are the first fired

and the last rehired, that we must come to grips with this problem and

any bill we pass. The rate of unemployment among Negroes is more than

twice that among white citizens. And we must have legislation to

prevent discrimination in hiring and firing. And we must have more

stress on apprentice training for Negroes.

Geesey:

Senator Kenneth Keating, Republican of New York. Senator Keating also

was asked about the Fair Employment Practices Amendment to be included

in the President's Civil Rights Bill, and here was his reply.

Keating:

We've had such a bill in New York State at the State level for years.

It has worked very well and I believe that we will not be passing

anything like full protection for our Negro citizens unless we do have

such provisions in this bill. Now, a second thing that I feel is

defective in this bill has to do with the measured proposed to assure

non-discrimination under federal programs. This actually could be dealt

with today by the President by an executive order. All that this

recommended bill says is that an agency head shall have the right to

withhold funds collected from all of our taxpayers, and then sent to a

facility, which discriminates.

That power now exists. It could be done without legislation, and in my

judgment nothing less than a mandatory requirement, which says that

when federal funds are collected from all the taxpayers, they may not

be sent to hospitals, or schools, or airports, or any of the other

programs to which our taxpayers contributed billions of dollars. They

do not give the same treatment to all of our citizens.

Finally, I feel strongly that the Civil Rights Commission should be

extended indefinitely rather than for a fixed period as has been

recommended by the President. Every time that this has come up for

renewal, they have been faced with harassment and difficulties in

having their life renewed and I believe that it should be made a

permanent agency and indeed offered such an amendment in the Judiciary

Committee, which we defeated by a tie vote.

I intend to offer it again. I the field of public accommodations, I

want to say this that the attorney general has said that he would

accept and would feel it would help the bill an amendment, which I have

offered to make that apply to, make the Fourteenth Amendment apply to

the public accommodations as well as the Commerce clause. And I think

that the Fourteenth Amendment is a stronger moral basis for the public

accommodations sections than is the Commerce clause. I think it can be

sustained under either provision of the Constitution, but I'm glad that

there is a willingness on the part of the Administration to accept this

proposal, which I made.

Geesey:

Senator Kenneth Keating, Republican of New York speaking to ERN

reporters these last few weeks about the Civil Rights Bill. There is

action again now on the stage at the Lincoln Memorial. Let's go to our

ERN reporter, Al Hulsen.

Abernathy, Shuttlesworth, Bunche and Josephine Baker Address the Crowd at the

Lincoln Memorial

Hulsen:

And speaking now to this vast crowd at the Lincoln Memorial is the

Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, famous for the Birmingham, Alabama

campaign. Now we go to the stage and Reverend Shuttlesworth.

Shuttlesworth:

So we realize that if freedom belongs to anybody, it belongs to

everybody, and until everybody has freedom, nobody is really free.

Somebody has said that there wasn't any use of our coming to

Washington, DC. But you see, for years people from all over the world

have been coming to Washington, DC. And now, more than ever people from

everywhere are coming to Washington, DC and we felt like other people

that Washington, DC is a place to come.

Now, we didn't come to molest nor to cajole. We came to be peaceful and

loving and law abiding because we are a law abiding people. We came

because we love our country. We came because our country needs us and

we need our country. But we came to serve notice today that if our

country wants peace, tranquility, and quiet, they might as just free

the Negro because until the Negro is free, nobody else will be free. We

believe that the members of Congress, we think that Congress has a

great responsibility today, can rise to meet the issues of this hour.

And the issue is not whether there should be freedom or how much

freedom to bring. We ought to go back and read first things first. All

persons born or naturalized are citizens. And we ought not to be

arguing at this point on how much freedom to grant whom. Everybody in

America ought to be free. And our final words are this. This meeting

today only serves to emphasize that most of the people in this country

now are ready to do whatever it takes in a non-violent, and religious,

and righteous way to be free.

Now, in many places, the court's calendars of the land are clogged. The

police forces are being marshaled and lines taught to keep people from

trying to be free. The judges have their hands full and the politicians

are worrying night and day. Now, if the politicians want to be free,

and if they want peace, if the judges want to unclog their calendar, if

the police want to be unfettered so that they can go ahead and hunt

crooks because people who want to be free are not necessarily crooks.

Then we should turn the Negro loose in America, we'll be free. We're

going to march. We're going to walk together. We're going to stand

together. We're going to sing together. We're going to stay together.

We're going to moan together. We're going to groan together and after a

while, we will have freedom, freedom, and freedom now. And we all shall

be free and [inaudible].

Davis:

And now, to show the international character of the struggle of which

we are currently engaged, I would like to introduce to you a person who

though far in residence from our shores has come all the way from her

home to be with us today, Ms. Josephine Baker.

Baker:

I want you to know that this is the happiest day of my entire life. And

as you all must know, I have had a very long life and I'm 60 years old.

The results today of seeing you all together is a sight for sore eyes.

You're together as salt and pepper just as you should be. Just as I've

always wanted you to be and peoples of the world have always wanted you

to be. You are a united people at last because without unity there

cannot be any victory. You see, I'm glad that in my homeland where I

was born in love and respect, I'm glad to see this day come to pass.

This day because you are on the eve of complete victory, and tomorrow,

time will do the rest. I want you to know also how proud I am to be

here today, and after so many long years of struggle fighting here and

elsewhere for your rights, our rights, the rights of humanity, the

rights of man, I'm glad that you have accepted me to come. I didn't ask

you. I didn't have to. I just came because it was my duty and I'm going

to say again you are on the eve of complete victory. Continue on. You

can't go wrong. The world is behind you.

Davis:

And now, my friends, the moment, our hour is upon us. We will have a

few more introductions but because time is urgent and we have close

here at a certain time in order to make trains back to the City, to

other cities. We're going to ask those people whom I will now introduce

to be exceedingly brief and confine their statements to one short

sentence if they can. I would like first to present to you a man who

needs no introduction, Reverend Ralph Abernathy.

Abernathy:

Friends of freedom, I am delighted to greet you today and bring you

greetings from down in Egypt Land. We are determined in the South and

in America today to say to the pharaohs to let God's people go free.

This is not the culmination but this march today is the greatest

demonstration since the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation by

Lincoln is just the beginning. Thank you.

Davis:

And now a group who came down from New York to bring us songs and their

styling. Not a group. I beg your pardon. A young lady who sounds like a

group. Ms. Joan Baez.

Joan Baez singing "All My Trials Will Soon Be Over." Singing con't.

Davis:

Thank you, Joan Baez. Ladies and gentlemen, there are many dignitaries

and people of worth and value in this audience, and we'd like to

introduce them to you, but we feel that the real hero of this occasion

is those thousands of people who came from all over. The hero is you

and we came here to serve you. We can't introduce everybody but we

would like to introduce some of those who happen to be with us one of

whom is Dr. Ralph Bunche.

Bunche:

Thank you. I wish to say only that I'm not only happy to be

participating with you in this effort today, I feel privileged and

highly honored. My identification with this effort and with every

legitimate effort for the emancipation of the Negro, the full

emancipation of the Negro is automatic because I am a Negro, but I am

here also and would be here also automatically as an American because

what is being done here today is in my view one of the truest and

finest expressions of American democracy at work. I think your presence

here today marks a great day in the annals of American Democracy, and

the message that you signal here by your presence people of both races

in vast numbers is that this problem of race in the United States is

not only our major national social problem, but it is in an acute

stage, requires radical action and attention and must be solved without

further delay, solved completely.

This is the simple and single message that I derive from this event

today. And your presence has made that message profound and its impact

has already been great, and it will be greater because anyone who

cannot understand the significance of your presence here today is blind

and deaf. And I thank you from the depths of my heart for being here.

Dick Gregory, Burt Lancaster and Harry Belafonte Speak at the March

Davis:

I would like to introduce very briefly a comedian fresh from the jail,

Mr. Dick Gregory.

Geesey:

What you're listening to is live coverage from the steps of the Lincoln

Memorial in Washington, DC Here's Dick Gregory.

Gregory:

Thanks. Thank you very much and it's a pleasure being here and nice

being out of jail. And I'm very confused this year because I'd never

thought I'd see the day I would give out more fingerprints than

autographs. And I can't tell you how elated I am over looking out at so

many of our smiling faces. And to be honest with you, the last time

I've seen this many of us, Bull Connor was doing all the talking. Thank

you.

Davis:

Ladies and gentlemen, I've been asked by the chief marshals to ask you,

please those who are standing in the back not to press so hard on those

who are in front against the fences. Thank you. I would like now to

introduce a young singer from New York, Bob Dylan.

Bob Dylan singing "Medgar Evers" ballad. Singing con't.

Davis:

We will bring...This will be our final selection from the folk singing

group and we ask that all of you within the sound of their voices join

in and express your feelings, Ms. Joan Baez, Mr. Bob Dylan, Len

Chandler and others and a song of their own.

Baez, Dylan, Chandler and group singing "Eyes on the Prize." Singing

con't.

Davis:

And now, we're going to change our emphasis slightly as the hour by

which we came approacheth. I would like to present to you a

distinguished artist who flew all the way from Paris to bring you a

scroll carrying the names of many of your supporters overseas. I give

you Mr. Burt Lancaster.

Lancaster:

Thank you very much. I have here in my hand a scroll, which as you can

see is rather poorly and inadequately wrapped, but it contains a

statement that I would like to read to you which is neither poor nor

inadequate. I bring it here with me from Paris where I've been working.

A few days ago in Paris a group of citizens like yourself and me,

Americans, gathered together and had a march of their own. They marched

to the American Embassy where they were very courteously and graciously

received by the Ambassador. And there they drafted a collective

statement indicating their support for the march here today. I have

some 1,500 names here.

Can I have it please, fellows? Thank you. I want to read an expression

of Americans in Europe who read in the papers there everyday about the

problems going on here. They couldn't come here. Many of them work

there. Many of them are traveling through. Many of them are attending

school, but they are Americans. They are American citizens. They have

the same feeling in their hearts and in their minds for the problems

that bring us all here today at this moment. Let me read what they say.

"We the undersigned hereby publicly express our support of the March on

Washington Movement, which aspires not only to eradicate all racial

barriers in American life, but to liberate all Americans from the

prison of their biases and their fears.

So considered, the March on Washington Movement becomes one of the most

amazing demonstrations for human dignity within living memory. We

cannot physically participate in this march. But we like the rest of

the world have been tremendously stirred by so disciplined an

exhibition of dignity, and courage and persistence. All Americans

traveling no matter where in the world today are in the position of

ambassadors, and are very often made bitterly aware of our country's

reputation. It is not easy to be an American abroad.

Nor is it easy to make coherent to those who are not Americans the

nature and the meaning of our struggle, and we are therefore forever

indebted to those Americans represented by the March on Washington

Movement for giving us so stunningly an example of what America aspires

to become and for helping us to redefine in the middle of this

dangerous century what is meant by the American Revolution.

We recognize that it is not only in America that the battle for freedom

and dignity of peoples is being waived. The struggle toward freedom on

the part of the previously subjugated is occurring in capitols and

villages all over the world. It is on our awareness of what this

struggle means, and in the degree of our dedication to it that our

future and the future of the world depends. I just want to turn this

over to Ossie and ask him if he will be kind enough to pass it onto the

official body here so they will know about it.

Davis:

Thank you, Burt Lancaster. I accept the scroll from the people of Paris

for the people of Washington, DC in the name of the Committee for the

March on Washington. I would like now to introduce one man who will

speak for the artists who have come to be with us today from Hollywood

and Broadway. Some came from Canada. Some flew in from Chicago. They

are from all over, but they are the people whom we have seen and whom

we love, and they want this opportunity to give you their feelings

about the March on Washington and what it means. I give you Mr. Harry

Belafonte.

Geesey:

This is the preliminary program live from the steps of the Lincoln

Memorial in Washington, DC, were everybody is gathered now in

anticipation to the formal program, which will be on at two o'clock.

Here's Harry Belafonte.

Belafonte:

Mr. Burt Lancaster just referred to a scroll that he brought here from

Paris with 1,500 names on it from fellow artists who could not be here

with us today. However, although they're not here in body, they're here

in spirit and there are many of us who were fortunate enough to be able

to come here today with our bodies. I'd like to read off some of the

names that are here today because most of them I cannot get to due to

the length of the program and the length of the afternoon's activities.

And I'd like to just read some of them because this is the first time

in the history of a major civil rights gathering, and especially this

one in Washington, DC that such artists have come forth. Mr. Marlon

Brando. Mr. Tony Franciosa, Mr. James Garner, Ms. Rita Moreno, Mr.

Frank Silvera, Mr. Sammy Davis, Jr., Mr. John Killins, Ms. Joanne

Woodward, Ms. Susan Strasberg, Mr. Joe Mankiewicz, Mr. Steve Cochran,

Mr. Burt Lancaster, Mr. Robert Ryan, Mr. Sidney Poitier, Ms. Diahann

Carroll, Mr. Gregory Peck, Mr. Anthony Quinn, Mr. Paul Newman, Mr.

Charlton Heston, Mr. Irwin Shaw, Mr. Bob Paris, Mr. James Baldwin, Ms.

Lena Horne, Ms. Ruby Dee.

As I said before, this is just a partial reading of a number of artists

who have in spirit and have in body supported the activities here

today. I also have a statement to read on behalf of the Cultural

Contingent, and it says, and all the names that I have just read to you

endorse this statement. We are here today a witness to what we know. We

know that this country, America, to which we are committed and which we

love aspires to become that country in which all men are free. We also

know that freedom is not license. Everyone in a democracy ought to be

free to vote. But no one has the license to oppress or demoralize

another.

We also know, or we would not be here, that the American Negro has

endured for many generations in this country, which he helped to build,

the most intolerable injustices. To be a Negro in this country means

several unpleasant things. In the deep South it often means that he is

prevented from exercising his right to vote by all manner of

intimidation up to and including death. This fact of intimidation is a

great weight in the life of any Negro and though it varies in degree it

never varies in intent, which is simply to limit, to demoralize, and to

keep in subservient status more than 20 million Negro people.

We are here, therefore, to protest this evil and to make known our

resolve to do everything we can possibly do to bring it to an end. As

artists and as human beings we rejoice in the knowledge that human

experience has no color and that excellence in any endeavor is the

fruit of individual labor and love, and we believe that artists have a

valuable function in any society since it is the artists who reveal the

society to itself. But we also know that any society which ceases to

respect the human aspirations of all its citizens courts political

chaos and artistic sterility.

We need the energies of these people to whom we have for so long denied

full humanity. We need their vigor, their joy, the authority which

their pain has brought them. In cutting ourselves off from them, we are

punishing and diminishing ourselves. As long as we do so, our society

is in great danger. Our growth as artists is severely menaced and no

American can boast of freedom, for he cannot be considered an example

of it. We are here then in an attempt to strike the chains which bind

the ex-master no less than the ex-slave, and to invest with reality

that deep and universal longing, which has sometimes been called, "The

American Dream."

Davis:

Ladies and gentlemen, the ten leaders of the Committee for the March on

Washington are coming onto the platform.

Hulsen:

We might mention here at the Lincoln Memorial that those ten leaders

include A. Philip Randolph, Director of the March on Washington for

Jobs and Freedom and nine others. The one person who was expected to be

here and is not in attendance is James Farmer, the National Director of

the Congress of Racial Equality. He will be represented among the big

ten by Floyd McKissick, National Chairman of CORE.

Others in this group are Walter Reuther, President of the United

Automobile Workers; Dr. Eugene Carson Blake, the Stated Cleric of the

United Presbyterian Church of the United States of America; Rabbi Uri

Miller, President of the Synagogue Council of America; Whitney M.

Young, Jr., Executive Director the National Urban League; Mathew

Ahmann, Executive Director of the National Catholic Conference for

Interracial Justice; Roy Wilkins, Executive Secretary, National

Association of the Advancement of Colored People; Rabbi Prinz,

President of the American Jewish Congress; and Reverend Dr. Martin

Luther King, Jr., President of the Southern Christian Leadership

Conference.

This formal program, which was expected to begin at 2:00 is probably

going to begin promptly at that time. More and more people are

beginning to feel the results of the heat here and of the close

quarters, particularly those up front right near the Lincoln Memorial.

Every few moments, it seems that someone is being lifted over the fence

to the Red Cross people, put on a stretcher and taken to one of the

first aid tents. Another woman has just been brought over the fence.

Some time ago, they were passing out ice cubes to these people that are

feeling the pressure of the crowd that goes back one mile to the

Washington Monument. This helped apparently to some extent. There's a

lot of noise here, a lot of people talking, a lot of people clapping.

Particularly, right here you hear typewriters and telephones from the

news people. A lot of planes are going over. The Washington National

Airport is just a short distance away. There is absolutely no space

left here. All the seats that were prepared for the dignitaries on the

steps and platforms of the Lincoln Memorial are entirely filled.

Davis:

...A. Philip Randolph.

Hulsen:

And now here is Mr. A. Philip Randolph, the Director of the March on

Washington for Jobs and Freedom. All around here those people that had

been seated are now standing applauding Mr. Randolph who was given

credit for originating the idea of a March on Washington. And as we

said, sometime ago back in 1941 he originated the idea of a march; a

march that wasn't carried out because he did receive his demand from

President Roosevelt to assure no racial discrimination in defense

plants.

Randolph:

Hello, Americans. Permit me to present to you to sing the National

Anthem Ms. Camilla Williams.

Camilla Williams singing "The National Anthem." Singing con't.

END AUDIO

Transcript

Transcript

Series: March on Washington

Program: Celebrity Participation in the March on Washington

Raw Footage: Part 5 of 17

Contributing Organization: WGBH (Boston, Massachusetts)

AAPB ID: cpb-aacip/15-9610vs0w

If you have more information about this item than what is given here, or if you have concerns about this record, we want to know! Contact us, indicating the AAPB ID (cpb-aacip/15-9610vs0w).

Description

Credits: Performer3: Darlene Berkovitz
Publisher: WGBH Educational Foundation

AAPB Contributor Holdings: WGBH
Identifier: 09b4076501f6de215e2405e224be955787bc109d (ArtesiaDAM UOI_ID)
Format: audio/vnd.wave
Duration: 00:58:22

Citations: Chicago: “March on Washington; Celebrity Participation in the March on Washington; Part 5 of 17,” 1963-08-28, WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 15, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-9610vs0w.; MLA: “March on Washington; Celebrity Participation in the March on Washington; Part 5 of 17.” 1963-08-28. WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. March 15, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-9610vs0w>.; APA: March on Washington; Celebrity Participation in the March on Washington; Part 5 of 17. Boston, MA: WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-9610vs0w