Great historical events do not always require the perspective of the past to be recognized for their lasting importance. One such event was the March on Washington in August, 1963, the largest gathering in U.S. history, which attracted 250,000 people from across the country for a peaceful demonstration for civil rights. The March culminated in a great gathering on the National Mall, where Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream Speech,” which also reached a televised audience of millions. Though this speech and this March forever altered the progress of civil rights in America, the epochal importance of the speech often threatens to overwhelm other important, less headline-making aspects of that great March. On the 50th anniversary of this march, William Jones, a renowned author of many works of African American history, has re-examined the march’s roots and prehistory in his timely new book, The March on Washington. Jones uniquely emphasizes the March’s roots in the African American trade union movement and the long fight waged by union members against racial discrimination and unsafe working conditions long before the later Civil Rights Movement brought discrimination to worldwide attention.
Jones begins his narrative not in the early 1960s, but two decades earlier, and focuses on the career of A. Philip Randolph, the President of the largely African American National Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, who from the early 1940s into the mid-1960s was one of the main leaders of the African American Civil Rights Movement. Long before Dr. King became well-known for his nonviolent methods, Randolph and his Brotherhood staged peaceful strikes, marches, and other forms of protest to advocate for an improved work environment for African American workers across the country. Randolph came to national attention in early 1941, when he attempted to organize a march on Washington to protest workplace discrimination, a threat that provoked much nationwide panic, as the country was on the verge of entering World War II. President Franklin Roosevelt called Randolph to the White House for a historic meeting that resulted in a presidential order to cease racial discrimination in defense industries. Defense contractors, however, widely flouted the order, and with the onset of war, the impetus for Randolph’s march withered, and no march occurred, but the example remained an important one for future leaders. Though Jones makes no explicit connection between the events of 1941 and 1963, he greatly illuminates the oft-overlooked trade union contributions to the Civil Rights Movement before the 1960s. Interestingly, Jones devotes only one chapter to the actual events of August, 1963, which have become more historically prominent. That summer, Randolph, still active at the age of 74, coordinated with other large civil rights groups, most especially Dr. King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and in the space of two months, often using Randolph’s substantial experience in union activism, planned a massive mobilization and raised substantial funds. On August 28th, a diverse crowd of over 250,000 people of all races, genders, socio-economic groups, and levels of education, gathered in Washington. Despite widespread fear of violence, the gathering remained orderly and peaceful, with no reported incidents during the three-day event. Televised to millions of Americans, the March and the dedicated people who made it happen, were vital in turning the tide against widespread racial discrimination, a tide that continues to recede to the present day.
William Jones, a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin, an established authority on the African American trade union movement, brings his formidable expertise to bear in giving an enlightening narrative to the background and prehistory of the 1963 March. Though his account of the March itself is relatively brief, his writing is powerful and accessible, and his work is a worthy addition to the history of the Civil Rights movement, illuminating an oft-underexamined contribution to one of America’s greatest events.
Rating: *****