Tens of thousands of people have returned to the Mall to memorialize the 50th Anniversary of the original March On Washington — a march that called itself the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom”. The National Archives provides a copy of the agenda for the original March and some helpful context.
The NYT is providing pictures of the event and some tweets of today’s event.
The Grio talks to some of the people who were at the first March.
Remembering that the 1963 March on Washington wasn’t always popular, especially in Washington.
And the Guardian is live-blogging the speeches and the event.
Yesterday, NPR had one of their StoryCorps pieces, this time featuring a man who walked from Brooklyn, NY to Washington, DC to attend the March in 1963. He is telling his story of walking all the way to his son. This story has a Delaware connection:
The authorities wouldn’t allow the group onto the turnpike, Lawrence says, so they walked on U.S. Route 1 instead. And upon reaching Delaware, Lawrence recalls, “they would not let us stop for any purpose. … They literally put a patrol car behind us and one in front, and they marched us 30 miles until we were out of their jurisdiction.”
August 28th is the real anniversary of the March, and President Obama is scheduled to speak to commemorate the event in front of the Lincoln Memorial with Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.