Geesey: Leaders of the ten national organizations sponsoring the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom today have issued a public statement on today's activities.
Geesey: It says in part that the Washington March today is more than just a demonstration.
Geesey: It was conceived as an outpouring of deep feeling of millions of white and colored American citizens that the time has come for the government of the United States of America, and particularly the Congress of that government to grant and guarantee complete equality in citizenship to the Negro minority of our populations.
Geesey: As such, the Washington March is a living petition in the flesh of the scores of thousands of citizens of both races who will be present from all parts of our country.
Geesey: They go on to say that it will be orderly but not subservient.
Geesey: It will be proud but not arrogant.
Geesey: It will be non-violent but not timid.
Geesey: It will be unified in purpose and behavior, not splintered into groups and individual competitors.
Geesey: We the undersigned who see the Washington March as wrapping up the dreams, hopes, ambitions, tears and prayers of millions who have lived for this day, call upon the members, followers and well wishers of our several organizations to make this march a disciplined and purposeful demonstration.
Geesey: We call upon them all black and white to resist provocations to disorder, and to violence.
Geesey: We ask them to remember that evil persons are determined to smear this march and to discredit the cause or the quality by deliberate efforts to stir disorder.
Geesey: This is a statement made by the leaders of the ten national organizations sponsoring the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Geesey: The Educational Radio Network has gathered its reporters from all of its stations in the Eastern part of the United States to man sites along the parade route and the assembly areas, and the Lincoln Memorial grounds where ceremonies will be heard this afternoon.
Geesey: To give you perspective on where these locations are, we would like to now call in our reporters on the scene in Downtown Washington.
Geesey: Let's first go to the Washington Monument grounds and reporter Malcolm Davis.
Davis: This is Malcolm Davis and I'm speaking from Site 3 down here at the Washington Monument.
Davis: Right now, we seem to be gathering a crowd of people beginning this March for Freedom and March for Jobs.
Davis: Right in front of me here I have the NAACP and CORE.
Davis: NAACP and CORE from Cincinnati.
Davis: They are on the left side of me here.
Davis: And just slightly down on my left is the National Association of Social Workers.
Davis: They are also from Cincinnati.
Davis: Military policemen and civilian policemen are now surrounding the stage holding the people back so that the stage area can't be overcrowded.
Davis: A few minutes ago we did have a report that Rockwell was in this area, but we have not had that confirmed.
Davis: Looking way ahead up the field from where I'm standing right now through my field glasses I can see that under the Washington Monument there is quite a large crowd gathered at this point.
Davis: And I think there is approximately 50 stars and stripes flying in the breeze here on this rather bright morning, and a rather clear view of the Washington Monument from Constitution Avenue where I'm standing.
Davis: Everything is comparatively quiet at this point.
Davis: As Al Hulsen said a few minutes ago, most of the people around here seem to be comparatively tired after what has probably been a very long night's journey from one place or another.
Davis: But I hope to talk to some of these people a little later on in the program.
Davis: The main area here is comparatively empty.
Davis: It is slowly filling up but nothing too much.
Davis: Surrounding the area are all sorts of lunch counters, and comfort stations and many trucks that are I presume here to service all of these people that are attending the March.
Davis: Radio and television cameras are still checking out here, and we seem to be, at this point from all the radio and television people, the only people on the air at the time.
Davis: Two Red Cross camps here are comparatively empty.
Davis: And, what appears to be the busiest area is the March headquarters tent.
Davis: That does have a very large crowd over there, but I can't at this point see exactly what's going on or report from that.
Davis: This is Malcolm Davis.
Davis: Now back to George Geesey at AMU.
Geesey: Lincoln Rockwell, who is the leader of the Nazi Party here in the Washington area.
Geesey: He did make an appearance as he promised to do and was marching around the east side of the Washington Monument.
Geesey: Police are on guard and are watching the demonstration.
Geesey: He has been told that he cannot have permission to do any demonstrating at all and therefore, police are watching very closely.
Geesey: And we'll be reporting from that site south of the Monument where they have a very good view of all the areas of the Washington Monument grounds where people are assembling this morning, people from out of town.
Geesey: The Washington people who are expected to join in this march today, particularly people who are expressing a desire for home rule are meeting on the Ellipse.
Geesey: There are at least 8,000 law enforcement agents on hand today in Washington to keep the peace.
Geesey: What they're chiefly concerned with is the possibility of outsiders sparking a riot or disturbance by heckling or name-calling or even physical violence.
Geesey: The District Commissioners are making themselves available every minute of the day in the District building.
Geesey: A special communications network has been set up to keep them in contact by radio and by telephone to their leaders and to leaders of the demonstrations.
Geesey: The ERN has a reporter located on the third floor of the police department where all of these efforts are being coordinated.
Geesey: Let's go now to Mike Rice.
Rice: It is realized that every member of the department will work many long and arduous hours of extra duty during the day of the rally without proper rest or relief.
Rice: With this view in mind, the factors of patience, courtesy, tolerance, and consideration are brought to your attention.
Rice: Members of the force in handling the many unusual circumstances that shall arise shall be patient, discrete and solicitous of the citizens of our own city as well as the multitude of visitors here during this rally.
Rice: Courtesy and consideration of the public as well as between ourselves and members of other departments assisting us is of the utmost importance.
Rice: Innumerable questions will be asked and information sought from members of the department.
Rice: Every reasonable effort shall be made to furnish the information requested, and if found necessary, the inquirers shall be directed to the proper source where the information may be obtained.
Rice: Many minor infractions of our regulations will be committed particularly on the part of visitors and should be explained to the violators.
Rice: Arrests for minor infractions shall be held to an absolute minimum.
Rice: We should all bear in mind the fact that visitors and others coming in contact with the police frequently judge the entire department by the actions of one officer.
Rice: The visitors will be from all sections of our country and the courtesy and assistance rendered by members of this department will cause them to take back home a lasting and favorable impression of their visit to the nation's Capitol.
Rice: Furthermore, it is just as important that we carry out our responsibility to the people of the District of Columbia in such a manner that they will continue to hold in the highest esteem the Metropolitan Police Department, the District of Columbia National Guard, the District of Columbia Fire Department and the Reserve Police Corp.
Rice: Next, a paragraph from Section 20, General Instructions.
Rice: This is the most important occasion that the Metropolitan Police Department has ever faced in its long and distinguished history.
Rice: It is imperative that every man and every official do his utmost to see that these orders are carried out to the end that when the rally is over and the participants have dispersed to their various homes in the cities and states, they may look back on this day with pleasure.
Rice: And that there will linger in their hearts a genuine esteem for our department.
Rice: This Michael Rice for the ERN at Washington Police Headquarters returning you to George Geesey.
Geesey: Mike Rice was reporting from police headquarters with some quotations from a 21-page report, Special Order Number 26 of Deputy Chief of Police Howard Covell to the Metropolitan Police Force.
Geesey: Mike has also phoned in some statistics so far this morning on the number of people arriving in this capital city.
Geesey: Of course, expected are some 32 special trains, which will have the capacity to carry 26,000 people and some 880 buses, which will be able to carry 33,000 people into this Washington city.
Geesey: So far, eleven of these special trains have arrived carrying about 7,000 people.
Geesey: Traffic is light downtown.
Geesey: The total now expected by the police department is 82,917 by bus and by train.
Geesey: The problem, of course, is the people who are driving by private automobile.
Geesey: Right now, on Capitol Hill March leaders are meeting with Congressional leadership at the US Capitol.
Geesey: We'll try to have reports from there, too, to find out what is being said and how the Congressional feeling is going toward this march on Washington.
Geesey: Washington, DC is a normal beat for about 1,200 news reporters for radio and television and the wire services and newspapers and other periodicals.
Geesey: And today, this 1,200 has been joined by more than a thousand reporters from as far away as Japan.
Geesey: All the major television networks are, of course, covering the March at some time or other today.
Geesey: Photographers are here from Germany and France and Japan to film today's events for their TV audiences.
Geesey: March leaders said Monday that Telstar would relay the action to Europe and early this week the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone Company said that it had already installed 68 radio circuits.
Geesey: Last night we heard there were 214 lines being rented from the telephone company for purposes of carrying broadcasts from the March site to respective radio stations.
Geesey: Another station carrying this live coverage from Washington in the Boston area is WGBH-FM where reporter Rick Lee has a report.
Lee: From WGBH-FM in Boston, Carolyn Isber speaking with Dr. Dana McLean Greeley, President of the Unitarian Universalist Association of North America who will head a delegation of more than one thousand Unitarians and Universalists participating in the Civil Rights Demonstration today.
Lee: Carolyn.
Isber: Dr. Greeley, I understand you're going to Washington.
Isber: Could you tell me why you're going and what you expect to be doing down there?
Greeley: I'm happy to participate in the Civil Rights march and to lead my own denominational participants because I do believe that this is a significant demonstration or an important witness in behalf of legislation that is long overdue.
Greeley: And, I'd like to have every bit of public sentiment placed behind this legislation at the present time that we can amass.
Isber: How many are going with you, Dr. Greeley?
Greeley: Well, I expect somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 Unitarians and Universalists from our churches in various parts of the country.
Greeley: These will be some small delegations, some larger delegations from the major metropolitan communities.
Isber: Do you have any organization down there for meeting and gathering together?
Greeley: We do.
Greeley: We shall be briefing our people on Tuesday evening, and then again on Wednesday morning as they come in from different parts of the country.
Greeley: And I expect that we'll have a fairly large rally ourselves at All Souls Unitarian Church in Washington before the March.
Isber: And then you will March with the groups?
Greeley: We will March with the regular group from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial entirely under the management of the Joint Committee for the March itself.
Isber: Will you be speaking to any senators or representatives?
Greeley: We will be speaking to some of the senators and representatives in the first instance in their own offices and in the second instance as a result of invitations that we have extended to them to join us on Tuesday evening.
Isber: Is your group supporting the bill as it stands now or are you proposing any changes?
Greeley: We are not proposing any specific changes.
Greeley: We are committed not to the details of the present legislation but generally to the President's proposals and to Civil Rights legislation as an urgency at this moment.
Isber: Has the Unitarian Universalist Church been helpful in organizing the March?
Greeley: I would say that it has.
Greeley: In specific communities across the country our people have tried to participate 100 percent in the community effort in every instance.
Greeley: But, from Boston to Cincinnati to Los Angeles, there are individual communities where they've taken the strong initiative.
Isber: What do you see as the goals of the March specifically?
Greeley: I would think that the goals of the March might be to strengthen the hands of those who are insistent that real progress must be made in the next few weeks and months legislatively speaking.
Greeley: But, equally significantly, real progress in the next year or so on behalf of the total program of equal rights.
Isber: Thank you very much.
Lee: That was Carolyn Isber for the Educational Radio Network from Boston.
Lee: This is Rick Lee for the ERN returning you to George Geesey at ERN Master Control.
Geesey: In a effort to keep account of what's happening on the stage area on the Washington Monument where some more of the current trend of folk music singers are entertaining the assembled group, let's go to reporter Malcolm Davis in that area.
Davis: Over here on the stage area I'm right up on the stage right now, the celebrities are beginning to arrive.
Davis: And at present Peter, Paul and Mary are just approaching the microphones.
Davis: They're about to sing to the crowd.
Davis: Let's go now and join that.
Davis: That was part of the entertainment that was just started here on the stage.
Davis: We hope to be back here shortly again with other entertainers.
Davis: Now back to George Geesey.
Geesey: Thank you, Malcolm.
Geesey: That's just some of the many entertainers that will be here today in town.
Geesey: Earlier reports from Hollywood said that the producer Cheryl Crawford would be here, Judy Garland, Kirk Douglas, Harry Belafonte, as members of a delegation led by Marlon Brando.
Geesey: And not all of these are expected to March but perhaps just participate silently to join the Marchers in support of equal rights for all.
Geesey: The man behind the organization of today's March on Washington is A.
Geesey: Philip Randolph.
Geesey: For more than 40 years he's been known to his own people as Negro Laborers' Champion.
Geesey: He's 74 years old and he's had a history of parade organizations.
Geesey: For instance, in 1941, he was behind the March on the Washington Movement to protest armed forces segregation and to demand more jobs for fellow Negroes in industry.
Geesey: He formed and is now the President of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters.
Geesey: He describes the March today as an attempt to pressure Congress for fast action on pending the civil rights legislation.
Geesey: Well, let's go now to another ERN station participating in this live coverage from Washington and bringing this program to listeners in New York City.
Geesey: Now let's call in Bill Price at WNYC.
Price: Some twenty-one years ago a demonstration was held in Washington.
Price: We never even knew anything about it but we've contacted Mr. George W.
Price: Goodman who is now Public Affairs Director of one of the Negro stations here in New York, WLIB.
Price: And he wants to reminisce about demonstrations and Marches on the telephone with yours truly Bill Price.
Price: Hello, George.
Goodman: Hello there.
Goodman: Listen, this whole March on Washington now certainly calls to mind a great many things that happened 21 years ago when Negroes were in much the same plight as far as job opportunities are concerned that they are right today.
Goodman: It was then the beginning or our war effort really, and Negroes were just practically excluded from certain work capacities because they couldn't get training for it.
Goodman: That was really what made A.
Goodman: Philip Randolph call Walter White and Dr. Tobias and Kinkle Jones of the National Urban League together to talk about what would happen in order to stir some interest and some changes.
Goodman: Now, that was basically the thing that started that brought up this whole idea, because Mr. A.
Goodman: Philip Randolph was the one that suggested that it ought to be some kind of dramatic impact that was made.
Price: In other words this demonstration today was in the embryo stages 21 years ago?
Goodman: That's very true.
Price: My mathematics aren't too good, Mr. Goodman.
Price: Twenty-one years ago is approximately what year or what year was it?
Goodman: About 1941.
Price: 1941.
Price: That was during the Second World War.
Goodman: That's right and actually what happened out of it came before the March actually occurred President Roosevelt issued his proclamation, which brought the first FEPC, Fair Employment Practices Commission.
Price: Yes, that's right.
Goodman: And since that time in these intervening years, this has spread over about eighteen different states and into many city ordinances.
Goodman: So that started the whole impetus back then and culminates today in this mass March on Washington and A.
Goodman: Philip Randolph is in this.
Price: The Negroes here in New York then, the ones who were in the embryo stages years ago must be quite excited about it.
Goodman: That's true right here in New York City, you know, you have Frank Horne who used to be with the New York City Commission on Human Affairs, Human Rights, and you have Bill Trent who is Director of the United Negro College Fund.
Goodman: You have Moon who is Public Relations man for the National Office of the NAACP.
Goodman: Now, all of those persons and Ted Poston by the way.
Price: Ted Poston?
Goodman: Ted Poston with the New York Post.
Goodman: He was in Washington at the time.
Goodman: So two of these men were members of what they call then the Black Cabinet.
Goodman: That was Frank Horne and Bill Trent.
Price: As long as I have you on the phone and reminiscing a little bit, let's get right up to date, George.
Price: How about today? Your station is located right in the center of Harlem, I take it?
Goodman: That's true.
Price: Up on Lenox Avenue there?
Goodman: That's right and I was out early this morning about 3 o'clock checking busload after busload of individuals who were leaving for Washington.
Price: What are some of the reactions? Can you think of some?
Goodman: Well, all of them were most enthusiastic.
Goodman: This is perhaps the most thrilling thing that's happened to lots of people in their entire life to actually have a part in demonstrating for civil rights.
Goodman: And that was the current feeling.
Price: I've always felt that, too, that the important thing is for the little man or the so-called unimportant mass to have a personal individual part in asking for civil rights.
Goodman: That's right but the next thing that stood out in their minds and their expressions was the fact that this is a demonstration of white and black people about a basic democratic principle and I think that's wonderful.
Price: Thank you very much.
Price: We've been speaking with George W.
Price: Goodman, Public Affairs Director of Negro Station WLIB here in New York.
Price: And, we've been talking about some reactions up in Harlem and we've been talking also about an original demonstration 21 years ago in Washington, DC.
Geesey: The crowd marching here in Washington today is demonstrating the need for jobs and freedom of the colored person.
Geesey: Odetta is on the stage now.
Geesey: Let's go back down to the Washington Monument stage.
Geesey: Reporter Malcolm Davis I think can bring us some of this entertainment right from the stage.
Edwards: This is David Edwards on the stage filling in for Malcolm Davis.
Edwards: We're presently being entertained by Odetta, the world-renowned Negro folk singer.
Edwards: She's been singing, "Oh, Freedom," one of the traditional songs of the movement.
Edwards: Let's go to Odetta now on the stage.
Edwards: This is David Edwards on the stage again.
Edwards: You've just heard a concert by Odetta, Peter, Paul and Mary, Josh White, Lonnie Satin and assorted other people.
Edwards: We've been hearing folk music by various people and now they're being called back.
Edwards: Here comes Odetta back to the stage now.
Edwards: Ossie Davis has just called her back.
Edwards: She's going to sing another number, and we'll bring that to you immediately.
Edwards: Here's Odetta.
Edwards: That was an encore with Odetta and that's coming to ERN listeners from the stage at the base of the Washington Monument.
Davis: And now I great pleasure and pride in introducing to you a person who needs no introduction, Ms. Lena Horne.
Edwards: And now, we have Malcolm Davis standing by on stage with another interview with a noted personality.
Edwards: Please come in Malcolm Davis.
Davis: Ladies and gentlemen, we do have an extremely interesting guest standing with us here now who has just been talking to all of the people her.
Davis: Sir, would you tell us your name?
Smith: Ledger Smith.
Davis: Now, sir, would you tell us how you came to Washington and from where you came and by what means of transportation?
Smith: Well, I left Chicago on the 17th of August on roller skates.
Smith: I arrived in Washington, DC on the 27th at a quarter to one.
Davis: Tell me, sir, what sort of problems did you have? Did you take along spare wheels or spare skates?
Smith: Well, I do have three sets of wheels that I carry with me, which I didn't need.
Smith: I didn't need any spare wheels at all.
Smith: And my skates held up pretty good.
Davis: What sort of problems did you meet on this journey?
Smith: Well, there were times when people would cut out at me with their car.
Smith: Say a place in Indiana a guy tried to run me down, but he missed.
Davis: Glad to hear that.
Davis: Tell me, were you allowed on the main parkways or did you have to travel by side streets all the way?
Smith: No, I was more or less on the main streets but not the toll roads.
Smith: It was the old, you would say the highways that each city used.
Davis: Now, of course, a journey on this on roller skates takes an enormous amount of strength and dexterity and you have to travel with luggage.
Davis: What did you do about that?
Smith: Well, I had been working out for I'd say over a week running five miles every day.
Davis: And how long have you been doing this running and training for this particular trip?
Smith: What I did was running training for at least two weeks.
Davis: Now that you are here, sir, would you mind telling us are you going to actually participate in the March or not?
Smith: Well, I hope to march in the March if I can find my delegation.
Smith: Since I've been up here, I can't find them so I don't know what's going to happen.
Davis: What are the chances that you won't actually walk in the March but skate?
Smith: Right, well I don't think I'll be skating much.
Smith: I don't think.
Davis: Can you tell, sir, if you have any particular plans that you intend to follow through while you are actually here?
Smith: Well, I'm here I'd like to find my wife because she come up, and I haven't found her yet.
Davis: She didn't come on skates?
Smith: No, she didn't.
Smith: She came by train.
Davis: Are you going to skate back?
Smith: No, I don't want to see those skates for a month now.
Davis: Well, we certainly wish you lots of luck.
Davis: This is Malcolm Davis on the stage at the foot of the Washington Monument.
Davis: Now, back to George Geesey.
Geesey: I think we're trying to capture the flavor now of some of the people who have come to Washington, DC to enter in this protest and this March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Geesey: This is from the stage now on the Washington Monument grounds.
Davis: Ladies and gentlemen, this is Malcolm Davis on the stage.
Davis: We have Jackie Robinson here at present.
Davis: I'm going to try and hand the microphone forward.
Davis: There is a possibility that we might be able to talk with him in a second or two once he is released by officials.
Davis: At that time, Dave Edwards is going to be asking him questions and reporting on this.
Davis: If you'll stand by for a few moments, we will be talking direct with Jackie Robinson.
Davis: Right now, I would like to bring our listeners, George, up to date on the state here.
Davis: At the foot of the Washington Monument the entire ground is one mass of people, an enormous mass of people.
Davis: And I have absolutely no idea.
Davis: It is virtually impossible to see any grass around here, only the trees on the horizon and the buildings.
Geesey: Well, Malcolm the official police estimate is now 100,000 people so that accounts for the mass of people you see there.
Davis: For our listeners in New York, George, I think they might like to know that there is a delegation here from the Lower East Side Civil Rights Committee.
Edwards: This is David Edwards on the stage.
Edwards: Jackie Robinson is standing here shaking hands with various of his well-wishers at the moment.
Edwards: We will be with him in a moment.
Edwards: Here he is.
Edwards: Mr. Robinson.
Robinson: Yes.
Edwards: You broke the color line in baseball what seems like a long time ago, but there are a good many color lines remaining.
Edwards: What do you see as the next steps to be taken?
Robinson: Well, I sincerely believe that the steps today that the Negro is taking is an indication that in all fields that the barriers have to come down.
Robinson: We're not going to be satisfied with tokenism at all.
Robinson: And I know very well that all of us are going to continue our pressures and we are sure that things are going to come about very soon.
Edwards: What ways do you think that action can most effectively be pursued now?
Robinson: Well, I'm sure that a demonstration such as this will let the Senators and Congressmen know about the quiet determination that the Negro is having here.
Robinson: So I think this is obvious what we're going to do.
Edwards: How about more direct action projects, freedom rides, sit-ins and other boycotts under such programs?
Robinson: Well, I think the boycott is going to come into being more and more because the Negro is recognizing their tremendous economic strength.
Robinson: We represent in sum more money than the whole of Canada.
Robinson: I think white businessmen are beginning to recognize it.
Robinson: The Negro now is beginning to recognize this tremendous strength and we're going to use this strength to our best advantage.
Robinson: Businesses and industry that will work with us will get our cooperation.
Robinson: Those who will not then we're going to just go some place else.
Robinson: It's going to be as simple as that as far as I'm concerned.
Edwards: Are you going to be marching this afternoon?
Robinson: Oh, most definitely.
Robinson: So I'm the head of the Connecticut Delegation.
Robinson: If I can find them among these thousands of people I'll be lucky, but we are looking forward to it and we're quite thrilled.
Robinson: I've never been so honored and thrilled in all of our lives.
Edwards: Thank you very much, Mr. Robinson.
Geesey: That was Dave Edwards who was talking to Jackie Robinson on the stage here at the base of the Lincoln Memorial.
Ferguson: This is Andy Ferguson, George.
Geesey: Oh, welcome.
Geesey: Welcome to Washington.
Geesey: You might explain to the listeners that you came by bus along with some of the demonstrators from the Boston area.
Ferguson: Yes, I did and first of all, George, it was quite an exhausting trip.
Geesey: What time did you leave?
Ferguson: I left at 10:00 p.m.
Ferguson: last night from Boston and we made only two stops, one in Baltimore, and one in Connecticut.
Geesey: What did you do in Baltimore?
Ferguson: They had planned a rally but they anticipated the great crowds coming into Washington at the time we were to leave Baltimore after the rally.
Ferguson: So they proceeded right after a slight breakfast to get here and even then we spent at least an hour and a half 20 miles outside of Washington.
Geesey: Yes, the police are reporting now that New York Avenue coming in from the northeast and the route from Hagerstown, Maryland, which would be the western access into Washington and also the southern route is now bumper-to-bumper with buses.
Geesey: So a lot of these people if they don't hurry are going to miss some of these exercises.
Geesey: They'll be here almost too late for any of the formal demonstrations, which might mean that we'd have an extension of these activities into the evening past 5:00 or 6:30 because certainly these people if they've come all this way aren't just going to turn around at 5 o'clock and go back.
Ferguson: George, I might add that although the trip as I said was exhausting the spirit on the bus was something extraordinary.
Ferguson: Here people on the bus with little sleep were most during the night with songs and a gay atmosphere.
Ferguson: We're in perfect spirit this morning, George.
Ferguson: It was quite unbelievable.
Geesey: Did you have special instructions or what was the nature of even entertainment on the bus?
Ferguson: They had planned earlier, the plan committee for the bus, to have some sort of program, but at that time at 10 o'clock, it seemed not a good idea because today's activities most people would be quite tired.
Ferguson: But they did have some instructions as to what to expect while in Washington and the procedures for lining up as far as far as the Massachusetts contingents are concerned.
Geesey: We reported earlier that Major Carl Allen, who was an assistant to Mr. Rockwell, who is the American Nazi Party, was arrested earlier and our ERN reporter, Mike Rice, who was at police headquarters downtown in Washington where all police activity is being coordinated, managed to talk to him just before he was arraigned.
Geesey: And just while you were talking to Brother Dylan, Al, we were able to get this telephone report from Mike Rice and let's hear it at this time.
Rice: Reporting from Washington Police Headquarters this is Michael Rice.
Rice: I have just talked with Major Carl Allen of the American Nazi Party as police prepared to take him to the general sessions court.
Rice: He asserted he was just trying to talk to the white people gathered with Lincoln Rockwell to tell them how detrimental today's meeting is to the nation.
Rice: He was aware of the risks of speaking out.
Rice: "It was worth it," he said.
Rice: Arrested once before in Washington for walking on a communist flag, Allen was disappointed with the small number of his sympathizers assembled today.
Rice: "About 125," he claimed.
Rice: "Most white people must be showing their disapproval," Allen speculated, "by staying away." "The March is instigated by Communist trained people," Allen accused.
Rice: "Martin Luther King for one," he said "has a pinkish background." "Other March leaders," he declared without identifying them, "are members of the Young Communist League."
Rice: His group resents, Allen explained that a group of people as he described them can take control of Washington for their own purposes.
Rice: His group, which he claims, represents the white majority of the country, "has been denied the right even to pray in public," Allen complained.
Rice: "This," he charged, "is the first stage of the Communist Revolution in America." This is Michael Rice for the ERN returning you to George Geesey.
Geesey: We have a tape recording that was prepared earlier that has a certain reflection on what this March on Washington today means to Roy Wilkins.
Geesey: Let's listen to that at this time.
Wilkins: The year 1963 is particularly fitting for this explosion of concern on the part of Negro American citizens and their friends over the failure to attain full citizenship rights in a full century.
Wilkins: For it was a hundred years ago that the Amendments to the Constitution were enacted.
Wilkins: The Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth, which granted citizenship, which granted equal protection of the laws, and which granted the right to vote.
Wilkins: And the last hundred years have been marked by systematic, deliberate, and massive, and I might add successful, effort to negate the Constitutional Amendments.
Wilkins: The Negro never won his full right to vote, and the South has not yet won it.
Wilkins: He is just now beginning in the last ten years to enjoy a semblance of equal protection of the laws, and he has affirmed only since 1954 the fact that the Constitution of the United States is colorblind.
Wilkins: Because in 1896, the Supreme Court said that the separate but equal doctrine satisfied Constitutional Requirements.
Wilkins: Now, after the Supreme Court's pronouncement in 1954 the Negro waited rather patiently for the implementation of his new citizenship status.
Wilkins: But, it became apparent very shortly that an effort was underway actively in the South, and by a sort of acquiescence in the North to defeat him, once more on his aspirations with respect to the Constitutional Amendments.
Wilkins: So, even though he had his status affirmed, he was not yet to enjoy it.
Wilkins: This was when the sit-ins broke out and the direct action marches began, and the protests began to take the place of reasonable discussion around tables.
Wilkins: And the slow processes through the courts and the legislative halls.
Wilkins: And, of course, in that time the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People functioned in what we consider to be a most basic way.
Wilkins: From 1909 up until 1954, it painstakingly laid the groundwork in the law and in the Constitution for the Negro's liberation from the status of separate but unequal.
Wilkins: And the long campaign was climaxed in ‘54, but in between rights were won as to voting, registration, housing, employment, picketing, and education as well as the administration of justice involving serving on juries and equality before the law.
Wilkins: The NAACP, therefore, laid the groundwork for the direct action programs of the past few years.
Wilkins: They have made it possible for picketing, marching, and demonstration on behalf of rights.
Wilkins: And the Association is delighted that more than half of the sit-ins arrested consisted of NAACP young people.
Wilkins: And the bail money put up was put up by NAACP branches.
Wilkins: And that along with other organizations it brought us to the spring of 1963 when Birmingham and other demonstrations over the South and again in the North pointed up the necessity of taking the case finally to the seat of government itself, to the Congress of the United States, to Washington, DC.
Wilkins: And it was thus that the March on Washington was conceived.
Wilkins: Its first purpose is to call attention to the disproportionate rate of unemployment among Negroes in this country, which is two and a half times, sometimes three times as great as that among white people, to their lack of training, to the failure of retraining programs to reach them, to their exclusion from apprenticeship training courses sponsored by unions, by the government and by others.
Wilkins: And, to their denial of work opportunities in certain white collar and technical fields, and in the building trades and certain other categories.
Wilkins: The second purpose of the March and close behind the first one is to support the enactment of the President's Civil Rights Legislation, which he proposed in late June.
Wilkins: This consists of a package of seven Titles, Title 2 of which has to do with places of public accommodations and get rid of racial discrimination in hotels and motels and theaters and restaurants and other public places.
Wilkins: And, one Title has to do with protecting further the right to vote, and extending the authority of the government to intervene in these cases.
Wilkins: Another Title has to do with desegregation of the public schools and the granting of additional powers to the Attorney General in this respect.
Wilkins: Another has to do with permission to the President to withhold federal funds from areas that do continue to segregate, and sundry other matters.
Wilkins: Not included in the package is an FEP, Fair Employment Practice Bill, which we regard as being essential and which the March will support.
Wilkins: And the whole demonstration in Washington is designed to impress upon the capital of the nation, and thus upon the people of the nation, the deep concern of American Negroes and their allies and churches and unions and other organizations of the country over the continued denial of their basic citizenship rights.
Wilkins: The March came about, as I have indicated, because of frustration over the normal channels of communication, and attainment and redress of grievances.
Wilkins: What will be the outcome? Well, it's hard to say.
Wilkins: The future couldn't be any worse than the past because the Negroes have suffered terrible deprivation in the past.
Wilkins: The little told story of how they have been deprived of educational opportunity is one that if told would justify all the means they have employed to bring their plight to the attention of the American people.
Wilkins: For generations of young people, young Negro children, have been crippled for life and have had guaranteed that in ten years from now, they will not be able to function as an efficient citizens.
Wilkins: The outcome of the March is bound to be the enactment of Civil Rights Legislation in line with what President Kennedy has suggested with some amendments, of course.
Wilkins: It's inevitable that the Congress would permit this package to go through as-is.
Wilkins: But we're hoping that the Amendments will be for strengthening the package rather than weakening it.
Wilkins: Another outcome of the March will be the enlightenment of white citizens of America on the continued plight of the Negro, and a sort of new appreciation of the Negro's status as a citizen.
Wilkins: A third outcome will be the effect upon the Negro himself.
Wilkins: He will be encouraged to become a whole citizen.
Wilkins: And, I'm confident that he will assume the responsibilities of whole citizenship, and that he will become more so than he has been today.
Wilkins: And, he has been in many instances a very stable citizen.
Wilkins: He will become a stable element in the community, and his children will achieve.
Wilkins: And, he will come to believe in the country not simply philosophically because he knows democracy is the best system in the world? But, he will believe in it because it works for him.
Wilkins: And, this is the strongest belief that we could have in this country and the strongest guarantee that our country will survive as a democracy.
Geesey: That was Roy Wilkins, Executive Secretary of the NAACP.
Edwards: This is David Edwards at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial.
Edwards: With me is Marlon Brando, the world-renowned movie actor.
Edwards: Mr. Brando, can you tell me why you're here today?
Brando: Yes, I can tell you why we're here.
Brando: I can speak for myself as a private citizen.
Brando: All of us from Hollywood have come as a private citizen representing no political party, and no specific point of view.
Brando: We're here as Americans to give the full support that we can in every way to the legislation that is now pending before Congress because we believe it to be right.
Edwards: Would you go beyond that and support the direct action projects undertaken by especially students, Negro, and white in the South today?
Brando: I think that any action that is lawfully provided for by the Constitution is something that should be fully supported and should be participated in.
Brando: Those are my own views.
Edwards: What is your impressions of the demonstration thus far today?
Brando: I think they have been impressive.
Brando: I think that the number of people here.
Brando: Of course, this is an historical unprecedented occasion.
Brando: No time in the history of America have this number of people assembled in Washington with a single cause such as civil rights.
Brando: I can't think of any.
Brando: Can you?
Edwards: No, I can't.
Brando: No, this is the only time that such a thing has happened in history.
Brando: I think it's momentous.
Brando: It's impressive and I think it tells the world that there are Americans that do care.
Brando: It tells Negroes that there are whites that do care.
Edwards: It's been striking the number of Hollywood personalities who have expressed support for this demonstration if even some of them have been unable to attend.
Edwards: Does this indicate a new awareness on the part of many of these people of the importance of the civil rights question today, do you think?
Brando: I think it indicates a new awareness on the part of all people.
Brando: We are here because a woman by the name of Rosa Parks stood up in the back of the bus in Montgomery, Alabama, walked down to the front and sat down in a chair.
Brando: And when the bus driver said, "Nigger, you'll have to get in the back of the bus," she said, "I'm not moving." And as a result of that, the Montgomery bus boycott began, Martin Luther King's Freedom Rides and sit-ins began, and finally here you are talking to me and I'm here doing my best to try to advance this cause.
Edwards: Some people suggest every so often that people like you could make an even greater contribution if more of the products turned out by the moviemakers in Hollywood concerned controversial social questions like the race question.
Edwards: Do you think this is a legitimate argument and do you think it's a possibility?
Brando: I don't know that it is an argument.
Brando: I certainly adhere and I'm in accord with all that you say in that respect.
Brando: There plans afoot to accelerate these issues and bring them before the public in every way possible.
Brando: People like Johnny Carson, Jack Paar, Steve Allen, Kupsin, and David Susskind.
Brando: All of these people are interested in presenting this point of view fairly and using their good offices and programs for a revelation of little known facts about this issue to be brought before the court of American Society.
Edwards: How about expressions of their own personal values as well?
Brando: They've done that.
Brando: Jack Paar has expressed himself to me about that.
Brando: Johnny Carson has given support to this.
Brando: Steve Allen certainly has a great interest in this.
Brando: Well, I could go on and on with the number of people that have supported this all the way down the line.
Edwards: Do you foresee any future activities on your part of one or another sort in support of this movement for civil rights?
Brando: Yes, this is going, this program is going to really step out wide and handsome now.
Brando: There was some discussion today on the bus for the first time about actors trying to get their films prevented from being shown in segregated theaters.
Brando: And I think that that is a very clear answer to those detractors and the people who have taken our interest lightly and who feel that this is just a publicity cause.
Brando: We don't stand to gain any money by that.
Brando: We stand to lose something.
Brando: But I think that the Negroes have lost for 150 years, and I think that we should share their sense of loss and their sense of gain.
Edwards: Thank you very much, Marlon Brando.
Davis: And now, to show the international character of the struggle of which we are currently engaged, I would like to introduce to you a person who though far in residence from our shores has come all the way from her home to be with us today, Ms. Josephine Baker.
Baker: I want you to know that this is the happiest day of my entire life.
Baker: And as you all must know, I have had a very long life and I'm 60 years old.
Baker: The results today of seeing you all together is a sight for sore eyes.
Baker: You're together as a salt and pepper just as you should be.
Baker: Just as I've always wanted you to be and peoples of the world have always wanted you to be.
Baker: You are a united people at last because without unity there cannot be any victory.
Baker: You see, I'm glad that in my homeland where I was born in love and respect, I'm glad to see this day come to pass.
Baker: This day because you are on the eve of complete victory and tomorrow, time will do the rest.
Baker: I want you to know also how proud I am to be here today, and after so many long years of struggle fighting here and elsewhere for your rights, our rights, the rights of humanity, the rights of man, I'm glad that you have accepted me to come.
Baker: I didn't ask you.
Baker: I didn't have to.
Baker: I just came because it was my duty, and I'm going to say again you are on the eve of complete victory.
Baker: Continue on.
Baker: You can't go wrong.
Baker: The world is behind you.
Davis: We can't introduce everybody but we would like to introduce some of those who happen to be with us one of whom is Dr. Ralph Bunche.
Bunche: Thank you.
Bunche: I wish to say only that I'm not only happy to be participating with you in this effort today, I feel privileged and highly honored.
Bunche: My identification with this effort and with every legitimate effort for the emancipation of the Negro, the full emancipation of the Negro is automatic because I am a Negro.
Bunche: But, I am here also and would be here also automatically as an American because what is being done here today is in my view one of the truest and finest expressions of American democracy at work.
Bunche: I think your presence here today marks a great day in the annals of American Democracy, and the message that you signal here by your presence people of both races, in vast numbers is that this problem of race in the United States is not only our major national social problem, but it is in an acute stage, requires radical action and attention and must be solved without further delay, solved completely.
Bunche: This is the simple and single message that I derive from this event today.
Bunche: And your presence has made that message profound, and its impact has already been great.
Bunche: And, it will be greater because anyone who cannot understand the significance of your presence here today is blind and deaf.
Bunche: And I thank you from the depths of my heart for being here.
Davis: I would like to introduce very briefly a comedian fresh from the jail, Mr. Dick Gregory.
Geesey: What you're listening to is live coverage from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.
Geesey: Here's Dick Gregory.
Gregory: Thanks.
Gregory: Thank you very much and it's a pleasure being here, and nice being out of jail.
Gregory: And I'm very confused this year because I'd never thought I'd see the day I would give out more fingerprints than autographs.
Gregory: And I can't tell you how elated I am over looking out at so many of our smiling faces.
Gregory: And to be honest with you, the last time I've seen this many of us, Bull Connor was doing all the talking.
Randolph: Permit me to present to you to sing the National Anthem, Ms. Camilla Williams.
Geesey: Let's go to our ERN reporter Al Hulsen.
Hulsen: And speaking now to this vast crowd at the Lincoln Memorial is the Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth famous for the Birmingham, Alabama campaign.
Hulsen: Now we go to the stage and Reverend Shuttlesworth.
Shuttlesworth: And we ought not to be arguing at this point on how much freedom to grant whom.
Shuttlesworth: Everybody in America ought to be free.
Shuttlesworth: And my final words are this.
Shuttlesworth: This meeting today only serves to emphasize that most of the people in this country now are ready to do whatever it takes in a non-violent, religious, and righteous way to be free.
Shuttlesworth: Now, in many places the court's calendars of the land are clogged.
Shuttlesworth: The police forces are being marshaled and lines are taut to keep people from trying to be free.
Shuttlesworth: The judges have their hands full and the politicians are worrying night and day.
Shuttlesworth: Now, if the politicians want to be free, and if they want peace, if the judges want to unclog their calendar, if the police want to be unfettered so that they can go ahead and hunt crooks, because people who want to be free are not necessarily crooks.
Shuttlesworth: Then we should turn the Negro loose and America will be free.
Shuttlesworth: We're going to March.
Shuttlesworth: We're going to walk together.
Shuttlesworth: We're going to stand together.
Shuttlesworth: We're going to sing together.
Shuttlesworth: We're going to stay together.
Shuttlesworth: We're going to moan together.
Shuttlesworth: We're going to groan together and after a while, we'll say freedom, freedom, freedom now.