Our World Today: 50 Years After the March on Washington
The following article is the Expert Update article from the Fall 2013 Making a Difference magazine, offering an interview with civil rights leader and Congressman John Lewis addressing. Click here to read the entire magazine.
Our World Today: 50 Years After the March on Washington
1. Do you feel the civil rights movement enabled the nation to evolve to the higher moral ground originally envisioned by organizers of the 1963 March on Washington?
I do believe that the civil rights movement did influence the nation to move to a much higher moral ground as envisioned by those who organized the March on Washington 50 years ago. Historians have called our movement the civil rights movement, but we were seeking more than rights. We wanted to build "The Beloved Community," what we called a society based on simple justice that values the dignity and worth of every human being. We are not there yet, but we are much closer today than we would have been without the movement.
2. Why does the March still resonate and inspire so many people, and would you say more voices are being heard today as a result?
The March on Washington still resonates and inspires so many people because it was based on truth, justice and fairness, and because its most visible leader, Martin Luther King Jr., emerged as the moral leader of America. There are many more voices being heard today because the spirit of the March on Washington lives on in the lives of many, many people, especially young people who were not even a dream or even born 50 years ago.
3. How significant was the inclusion of speakers representing women, persons with disabilities, Latinos, LGBTs and other groups during this year's commemoration activities?
It was so pleasing, right and necessary 50 years later for the speakers to be all-inclusive – men, women, black, white, Latinos, Asian American, Native American, gay, straight and those with and without disabilities were represented. The speakers represented the best of America. Their diversity demonstrates the power of the movement to usher in a new vision of America that is all-inclusive and much more tolerant than ever before.
4. How might historically marginalized populations such as people with disabilities join forces with other social movements to make progress?
It is my belief that if people with disabilities are going to succeed and continue to make progress, they must become a part of this growing movement that represents everybody, where no one is left out or left behind, whether they have disabilities or not. The movement to create change in America must look like America. People must co-align across organizational lines and come together around the principle that we are one people, one family – the human family. We are one house, the American house – the world house.
5. What does your passion for voting rights stem from and why is voting so important?
My passion for voting rights comes from the sense that we all have a right to participate in the democratic process. The vote governs everything we do from the cradle to the grave. People have a right to participate in the decisions that affect where they live, the water they drink and the air they breathe. Voting is the most powerful, non-violent tool or instrument that we have in a democratic society, and we have to use it. We have to fight for it. We have to speak up for it and speak out for it. That's why people are trying to keep us from voting, and now they are trying to take the right to vote away from us. People struggled, suffered and died in this country – people that I knew – trying to gain unfettered access to the ballot box.
6. How would the Voter Empowerment Act you introduced protect voting rights now that the Supreme Court has struck down sections of the Voting Rights Act?
The Voter Empowerment Act that we introduced in the last Congress must be reintroduced. It could be changed with an additional provision to fix what the Supreme Court struck down in the Voting Rights Act.
7. Are you concerned about voter suppression and how voter ID laws might present barriers for groups such as people with disabilities?
I am deeply concerned about the proposed changes in the process, the road blocks and the stumping blocks. The voter ID requirement could affect people with disabilities and those without disabilities. The right to vote, the right to participate in the democratic process should be so simple that no one would be denied or threatened with the denial of the right to participate in the democratic process. Every citizen, those that are challenged, those without challenges should have free, fair access to the ballot box.
8. Do you feel America has made progress in the response to the call for "jobs, justice and freedom" that was the theme of the original March on Washington?
There have been changes. And I've said in the past to anyone who believes we have not made progress should come and walk in my shoes. America is a different country than the one I grew up in. We are a better people and a better nation today than we were 50 years ago. We have witnessed a non-violent revolution in America because of the civil rights movement – a revolution of values, a revolution of ideas.
9. What steps can the disability community take to attain fair access to a good education and jobs?
Members of the disability community must speak up, speak out and become part of the ongoing movement for civil rights and human rights to receive all of the benefits of the larger society. Members of the disability community must be bold and courageous, and they must organize the unorganized, mobilize those that need to mobilized, participate in the political process and say to the political leaders and officials, "this is what we want and this is what we expect to receive."
10. What do you consider to be today's most pressing civil rights and social justice issues?
Today I think one of the most pressing issues is to see that every person in America receives the best possible education. I also believe we all should receive quality healthcare. It should be affordable and accessible. We need to be freed of violence against our citizens and also violence in and against our communities, especially toward people with disabilities, the elderly and our children. Everybody who is able and wants to work should be able to find meaningful employment as a source of income, so people can live freely and independently.
11. What are your thoughts about the prospects for today's young people to make their mark on history in realizing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s beloved community?
I think young people today are more free to go out and do what they can to lead the country and lead society to a better place and a higher ground. Young people must not and cannot stand on the sidelines. They must get out there. They must be engaged. They must work in the arena of change in order to make a difference.
John Lewis Bio:
Often called "one of the most courageous persons the civil rights movement ever produced," John Lewis has dedicated his life to protecting human rights, securing civil liberties and building what he calls "The Beloved Community" in America. His dedication to the highest ethical standards and moral principles has won him the admiration of many of his colleagues on both sides of the aisle in the United States Congress.
As a young boy growing up in a segregated Alabama, he was inspired by the activism surrounding the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the words of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., which he heard on radio broadcasts. In those pivotal moments, he made a decision to become a part of the civil rights movement. Ever since then, he has remained at the vanguard of progressive social movements and the human rights struggle in the United States. By 1963, Lewis was a nationally recognized leader and was dubbed one of "The Big Six" leaders of the civil rights movement. At the age of 23, he was an architect of and a keynote speaker at the historic March on Washington in August 1963.
Lewis also went on to become a pivotal leader in voting rights and became the director of the Voter Education Project (VEP). Under his leadership, the VEP transformed the nation's political climate by adding nearly four million minorities to the voter rolls.
He was elected to Congress in November 1986 and has served as US Representative of Georgia's Fifth Congressional District since then. He is Senior Chief Deputy Whip for the Democratic Party in leadership in the House, a member of the House Ways and Means Committee, a member of its Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support and Ranking Member of its Subcommittee on Oversight.
Lewis, the only person still alive who was a speaker listed on the official event program in 1963, commemorated the 50th anniversary of the March and delivered a speech honoring the progress made but the work that still needs to be achieved.
Did You Know?
The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Fredom ...
- Was the largest demonstration ever held in the nation's capital to date with approximately 250,000 attendees
- Used more than 2,000 buses, 21 chartered trains and 10 chartered airlines to transport people attending the March
- Was the first televised political rally in American history, with extensive television coverage nationally and internationally
- Occurred in the same year that marked the centennial anniversary of the official signing of the Emancipation Proclamation
- Had support from President John F. Kennedy, who didn't attend but watched it on TV
- Aimed to establish a $2/hr minimum wage, full desegregation of the nation's schools and create measures to ensure fair and decent housing among its many objectives
- Had nearly 4,000 volunteer fire marshals present who were trained in the discipline of nonviolent mediation by event organizer Bayard Rustin
- Featured Daisy Bates, Little Rock Nine organizer and Arkansas newspaper publisher, as the only woman to actually address the crowd
- Included support from nearly 60,000 white participants, labor union members and multi-ethnic minorities who joined African-Americans and religious leaders to create the historic movement
