Opinion
March on Washington: Then and Now
F
ifty years ago, 250,000 peo-
ple gathered at the Lincoln
Memorial to call for justice
and equality for all Americans. As
the anniversary of the March on
Washington for Jobs and Freedom
approaches, we, participants in the
march we helped to plan, are
delighted that this remarkable
moment will be commemorated.
But we are troubled that the
overarching significance of the
march largely has been obscured,
reduced to a sort of mental post-
card. What’s too often forgotten is
that the event created a climate
that eventually led to passage of
the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and
the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Most people remember the 1963
march as the place where Dr. Mar-
tin Luther King Jr. gave his “I
Have a Dream” speech, one of the
greatest orations in American his-
tory. But no single moment can
adequately convey the true mean-
ing of the March, its goals,
achievements and strategy.
A. Philip Randolph, the father of
the modern Civil Rights Move-
ment, called for the March. As
president of the Brotherhood of
Sleeping Car Porters, the first
majority Black union, Randolph
recognized the need to press
NNPA G UEST C OLUMNISTS
Norman and Velma
Murphy Hill
Washington to commit to national
job creation and an end to employ-
ment discrimination.
This view was shared by
Bayard Rustin, a master strategist
and chief organizer of the March.
Together, they understood that
while unemployment levels were
especially high among Blacks, a
march focused on job-related
issues would appeal to all workers
and their labor unions. Randolph
and Rustin both believed that
organized labor was the most able
institution to lift the nation’s
“have littles” and “have nots.”
Leaders of the major civil rights
organizations, including Dr.
King, were invited to participate
in the planning of the march,
expanding the event’s mission to
include the struggle for racial
equality, and combining the issues
of race and class for the first time
in a major civil rights demonstra-
tion. The very scope and size of
the eventual march confirmed the
soundness of the Randolph-
Rustin strategy. It produced a set
of far-reaching demands, such as a
massive federal program to train
and place all unemployed workers
in meaningful jobs; a national
minimum wage that would pro-
vide a decent living for all
workers, including domestic and
agricultural workers; guarantees
for high-quality, integrated public
education; and unimpeded access
to the ballot box – all of which still
are desperately needed today.
billion economic stimulus pack-
age in 2009 helped to arrest a
severe recession, but we still need
a much larger public and private
investment to ensure jobs are
available for all who want them.
Shamefully, the real value of the
national minimum wage has fallen
substantially since the 1970s. And
this June, the U.S. Supreme
Court’s conservative majority
declared Section 4 of the Voting
‘Half a century later, much remains to
be done’
Many of the marchers – Black
and White – were part of union
delegations. And later, under the
pressure of civil rights organiza-
tions and the AFL-CIO, the Civil
Rights Act was strengthened to
include Title VII, which barred
employment discrimination on the
basis of race, gender, religion or
national origin.
Subsequent legislative acts
achieved many of the goals of the
march. Yet, half a century later,
much remains to be done. For
example, President Obama’s $800
Rights Act unconstitutional,
meaning that minority voters—
mostly in the Deep South—no
longer can look to Justice Depart-
ment oversight of any state and
local
authorities
proposing
changes that could suppress the
voting rights of minorities. And,
although some progress has been
made, most Black students still
attend segregated public schools.
Nonetheless, the Randolph-
Rustin strategy offers a guide to
reviving major civil rights and
employment initiatives. The
march succeeded because it
achieved the broadest possible,
independent political coalition
centered on Blacks and organized
labor. Labor still wields enormous
political and financial muscle,
especially when coupled with
empowered racial minorities,
including the fast-growing Latino
population, along with women,
intellectuals of good conscience,
middle-class liberals, gays and
lesbians, and progressive mem-
bers of the faith-based community.
If we can build a comprehensive
alliance along these lines, we can
push back the rigid right wing and
regain the initiative that showed so
much promise in the 1960s. We
must continue the civil rights fight
for reforming immigration, pro-
tecting voting rights, ending racial
profiling and lifting the nation out
of its economic doldrums. To
accomplish this, and more, we
must draw on the best of the 1963
March on Washington—looking
back to step forward.
Norman and Velma Hill were
organizers for the Congress on
Racial Equality (CORE). Norman,
a former AFL-CIO official, is for-
mer president of the A. Philip
Randolph Institute.
Russell Simmons Video Violates Harriet Tubman
E
When you don’t know
very time I hear
African
American
the voice of Rus-
B ENNETT
women
it
is
easy and
sell Simmons, I
C OLLEGE
lazy to reduce us into
hear a cool, clean, clear
stereotypes. Does Rus-
meditative voice, espe-
Julianne
sell Simmons know
cially on Twitter where
Malveaux
Harriett
Tubman,
he drops his yoga knowl-
Sojourner Truth, Ida B.
edge in a reflective way.
Wells, Anna Julia
I guess he wasn’t folding
Cooper, Sadie TM
his legs and saying a cen-
tered “Om” when he decided to ridicule an Alexander, and Mary McLeod Bethune?
African woman. How did his voice distort Does he know Coretta Scott King, Myrlie
itself to decide that he would post a You- Evers, Betty Shabazz, C. Delores Tucker.
Tube video on a space where everybody Does he know us, or does he simply see us
could watch a so-called parody of “Harriet as the fodder for parodies?
The Simmons drama is especially offen-
Tubman” having sex with her White slave
master with the intent of filming it and sive because when we have African
blackmailing him? How could he, this for- American people lifted up, the lifting is
ward-focused man, decide to demean an mostly about men. Still, Dr. Martin Luther
emancipation heroine? Choose to demean King Jr. would not have made it without the
her by making her a sexual object? Even as enthusiasm of Coretta Scott King.
Harriett Tubman saved hundreds of
he took the offensive tape off his website,
please tell me, somebody, what Simmons enslaved people, yet her name is rarely lift-
was thinking? (In my first draft of this col- ed when we speak of emancipation. African
umn, I called this man a “brother,” but American women’s role in our history is
really I mean the brother from another neither admired nor appreciated. When our
brothers call the roll, she is given no cre-
mindset.)
Harriet Tubman is credited for freeing dence, unless it is an afterthought. Brother
more than 400 enslaved people. She is cred- Simmons if you just picked up a history
ited for pulling a gun on some who book, you’d find African American women
embarked on the Under Ground Railroad, who have made a major difference in our
then wanted to turn back to massa. It’s lives and in our movement.
Russell, do you know Ella Baker, the stal-
complicated, but no matter how complicat-
ed it was, the depiction of Harriet Tubman a wart sister who stood beside and behind Dr.
sex object is not only disparaging to a free- King and others to do organizing work? Do
dom fighter, but to every Black woman who you know Professor Joyce Lander who
before being an academic was a tireless
stands on her shoulders
Nearly 20 years ago, Professor Anita Hill civil rights worker? Do you know Alice
stared down a Senate Committee and spoke Walker, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes
of the sexual harassment she experienced Norton, Maxine Waters.? Or a bit younger,
from now Associate “Justice” Clarence do you know Congresswomen Yvette Clark,
Thomas. The judiciary committee dis- or Donna Edwards? The work these women
missed her claims as “erotomania;” have done and continue to do is possible
interestingly, others who had similar claims because they stand on the shoulders of Har-
were not allowed to testify. Despite the best riett Tubman and our other ancestors.
Your apology doesn’t address the mindset
legal representation out there, Hill was
excoriated in the media. From my perspec- that allowed this parody in the first place,
tive, her best statement was “they don’t the dozens of editors, producers, and assis-
know me” in response to those who used tants who saw nothing wrong with this, and
minutia to claim special knowledge of her the many Simmons “fans” who laughed at
the depiction of a historical figure such as
life and daily living.
Harriet Tubman as a sexual object who used
her vagina for “freedom.” It is as if you are
laughing at every Black woman who was
enslaved and had no choice when “massa”
decided to rape her repeatedly. It is as if
you do not recognize the painful history of
How could he, this
forward-focused man,
decide to demean an
emancipation heroine?
every Black woman who was raped, not
only during slavery, but thereafter, when the
goal was to keep Black men “in line” by
violating Black women. It is as if you put
myopic blinder around your eyes, and chose
to ignore history and its resultant pain. Can
you imagine (often happened) the violation
of a child, a violation so intense that baby
girls who dreamed of being mothers were
told they could not have children?
Russell Simmons, once upon a time, you
were the ambassador of a generation. Even
now, people are mesmerized by your gentle
manner, your quest for peace and spiritual-
ity and your practice of yoga and Pilates.
Wrap your spirituality around your video
and tell us where the two intersect. How
could you? Why would you? How dare
you?
When you diminish our legacy for enter-
tainment purposes, “pulling” the video is
not enough. You need to work at eliminat-
ing a mindset that makes you and others
think that the denigration of African Ameri-
can women is okay.
Julianne Malveaux is a Washington, D.C.-
based economist and writer. She is
President Emerita of Bennett College for
Women in Greensboro, N.C.
Week on the Web
OG One: We Don’t
have a Gang Prob-
lem, We Have a
Community Prob-
lem ... NW News
Building a Racial
Justice Movement ...
Opinion
Comedian Aisha
For The Skanner News
on your smart phone
go to www.
theskannermobile.com
or scan this QR code
with your app.
Tyler Dishes on
Her New Book
‘ S e l f - I n f l i c te d
Wounds’ ... Enter-
tainment
Republican Rep.
Darrell Issa is
Richest in Con-
gress with $355
Million ... US News
www.
August 21, 2013 The Portland Skanner Page 5