Looking back on it, many, if not most, people would be surprised to know that the 1963 March on Washington made people in Washington afraid. In 1963 the date fell on a Wednesday. Stores boarded up their windows, government offices closed, southern Senators decried the possibility of violence. The police were put on high alert.
At First Congregational Church, where I was a member, and many other churches volunteers were busy making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to feed marchers. Plastic water bottles had not yet made their appearance so we prepared Kool-Aid in large pitchers for marchers to drink.
The fears generated by those who opposed equal rights never occurred. Women wore nice dresses, men wore suits, and some had the sense to bring broad hats against the sun. Peter, Paul, and Mary, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Odetta, Mahalia Jackson, to name a few led people in song. The only thing normal on that extraordinary day was the weather. It was hot and humid as Washington always is in August.
Prayer for the Day
Hearing the voices of prophets, we turn away from them, O God,
For they call us to repentance and to build a new world for all;
Shaking our heads, we think that they are not very practical, O God,
For is it not to be prudent that you call us to be, O God?
Break into our carefully constructed models of living,
Shattering our images of pragmatic and careful lives.
In the name of the One who breaks into all images,
Even Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.
Thoughts for the Day
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, August 28, 1963
You know I have always taken the rocky path. I never took the easy one, but as I get older, and as I knew I had the power and the strength, I took that rocky path, and I tried to smooth it out a little. I wanted to make it easier for you.
Josephine Baker, singer, statement at the March on Washington (1906-1975)
Take away from me the noise of your songs,
I will not listen to the melody of your harps;
But let justice roll down like waters,
And righteousness like an ever flowing stream!
Amos 5: 23-24