Now substituting for Louis Lyons, here is Myron Spencer, director of the graduate school of business at Northeastern University. Mister Spencer.

Good evening. Just a few moments ago, President Kennedy signed the bill that will avert a railroad strike that was scheduled for 12:01 AM tomorrow morning. The House speeded work up today and sent to the President legislation that orders binding arbitration of the key issues in that threatened railroad dispute, and the roads themselves have cancelled the new work rules which had threatened to lead to the strike.

Even before the President had a chance to sign the legislation, Secretary of Labor Wirtz announced they had been officially advised that the carriers had withdrawn the order to make the work rules effective. Wirtz sent telegrams to the heads of the five rail operating unions, reporting the carriers' actions, urging them to take necessary steps to cancel their own strike orders. The unions that announced that they would strike as soon as the new rules became effective.

The House passed this legislation by a 286 to 66 standing vote, one day after the Senate had passed the same measure by a vote of 90 to two. The House was considering a number of changes in the bill, but refrained from making any so that they would not have to send the bill back for compromise. This is the sort of action that speeded matters up. The carriers have issued this statement as of this hour: The railroads share both the nation's relief over the lifting of the strike threat, and the nation's gratitude to the Congress for its timely and constructive handling of the crucial legislation.

Well, this resolution will force arbitration by a seven-member board, to settle for two years disputes over 32,000 firemen's jobs, and the size and makeup of freight and yard train crews. Under the resolution, unions and management would name two members each to the arbitration board, those members would have five days to choose three public members. If they could not agree, President Kennedy would have five more days to name the neutral members. Within 90 days, the board would issue its rulings to settle the disputes over firemen and freight train crews, and 60 days later, the arbitration award would go into effect.

A variety of other issues involving additional work rules, and wage questions would be left to negotiators. Government, union, and management spokesmen agreed tonight that the side issues could be settled once the two key manpower questions are out of the way. All told, the resolution would bar a strike on any issue for 180 days. The Senate adopted a provision providing a 30-day period for bargaining about secondary disputes, once the arbitration award is handed down.

Well, trading had ended on the New York Stock Exchange today, ended before this news came that Congress had passed a resolution aimed at averting the strike. But Wall Street apparently was confident all day long that Congress would do precisely this, felt that it was inevitable, and by the way, many members of the House of Representatives have been saying this afternoon that they simply had no alternative, although they were not too fond of a bill of this kind.

As a result of this confidence, that this action had to be taken, the stock market staged one of its vigorous rallies of this year. The trading was very heavy. The popular market averages more than wiped out the sharp losses of yesterday, when the street was a bit apprehensive over what might happen on the roads. Prices were up from the start of trading, and the strength of course in the rails spearheaded the early advance. A late rally occurred and the savings and loan issues apparently carried the market still further forward. The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 5.19 points, closed at just a shade over 725.

Another big mine story in the news tonight, hard on the heels of the dramatic rescue of David Fellin and Henry Throne in Hazleton, Pennsylvania. The scene now shifts to a potash mind in Moab, Utah. In Moab, officials said today, an undetermined number of men were alive and awaiting rescue at the bottom of a 2,700-foot mineshaft, where they were trapped by an explosion yesterday. The chief engineer of the Texas Gulf Sulphur Company, Hugh Crawford, said the men were separated from the rescuers by a barricade of unknown origin. Texas Gulf, by the way, owns and operates this mine. Now, three of the trapped miners, who were reported to be haggard and near collapse, were pulled out of a 2,700-foot mineshaft early this morning.

Meanwhile, a 12-inch escape hole was drilled into a chamber more than 300 feet underground, at the coal mine in Hazleton. This is in order to get out the third miner, Louis Bova, who may still be alive. A microphone and then a loud speaker were lowered into the chamber, but there was no sound of human life. On the surface today, one of the two miners rescued from deep in the mine yesterday, said he knows Bova is still alive down there, even though he hasn't had any food in two weeks. The drilling of two other shafts down into the mine is now under way.

Well, the ten leaders of the civil rights March on Washington have arrived at the White House for a meeting with President Kennedy, and with Vice President Johnson. Presumably, that meeting is now in progress, as the arrival has just been reported, and some other top officials are to join in the meeting. A little earlier today, leaders of the March on Washington called on the top men in Congress, got some reassuring words on prospects for passage of a strong civil rights bill this year. The delegations spent two hours closeted with House and Senate leaders, at three separate sessions. Lawmakers and marchers called their talks friendly and useful, but there was no sign that the demonstration had lessened southern opposition to a civil rights bill.

Many Congressional offices were closed today, some Congressmen gave their staffs a day off to avoid the jam in downtown Washington. House speaker, John McCormack, Democrat of Massachusetts, told the delegation that visited him, he thinks prospects are good for passage of a Fair Employment Practices bill, and a broadened provision authorizing government intervention in civil rights cases. That intervention, of course, and possible Fair Employment Practices bill, can only come about if they're approved by the House Judiciary committee. And the speaker said he told the marchers he would discuss those provisions with Emanuel Celler, Democrat of New York, who's chairman of the House Judiciary.

Meanwhile, and perhaps a bit sardonically, a House Judiciary subcommittee met behind closed doors today, to discuss the civil rights bill, and promptly wound up the session by announcing a 10 day recess. Celler said he won't be able to schedule further sessions until September ninth, because many lawmakers will be out of town over the Labor Day holiday. And he says further, that's a setback for his hopes for getting the bill through the full committee during the month of September. The subcommittee is now in its third week of closed hearings on this civil rights bill.

President Kennedy, in an unusual move, made public his Labor Day statement today, released five days in advance, so that it could serve as a message to the Freedom March participants and their sympathizers. The President declared that we must accelerate our efforts to achieve equal rights for all our citizens. The President thus lent his support to the cry for freedom now, which of course was the principal theme of most of the speeches delivered in Washington today.

The President's Labor Day statement continues, "these recent months, 100 years after the emancimation-, emancipation proclamation have seen the decisive recognition by a major part of our society, that all our citizens are entitled to full membership in the national community. The gains of 1963 will never be reversed. Recent developments," said the President, "lay a solid foundation for the progress we must continue to make in the months and years to come." Then Mister Kennedy appealed for accelerating the drive for equal rights for all citizens, in employment, in education, in voting, and in all sectors of national activity.

Negroes and their white supporters who marched the mile from the Washington Monument of the Lincoln Memorial, gathered to hear leaders of the ten organizations sponsoring the rally, explain their cause. The urgency keynote of the demonstration was stressed by the chairman of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, John Lewis, who told the gathering, "To those who have said be patient and wait, we must say that patience is a dirty and nasty word. We cannot be patient, we do not want to be free gradually, we want our freedom now."

Very interesting point developed here, he skipped a sentence in his prepared text. A sentence that he did not articulate, which reads this way, "We cannot depend on any political party for both the Democrats and the Republicans have betrayed the basic principles of the Declaration of Independence." But then Lewis went on to say, in this he did articulate, "In good conscience we support the administration's civil rights bill, but with reservations. There's not one thing in the bill that will protect our people from police brutality in its present form."

The executive secretary of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Roy Wilkins, sounded a similar note saying, "The President's proposals represent so moderate an approach, that if any one of them is weakened or eliminated, the remainder will be little more than sugar water. The President should join us in fighting for something more than pap." Then Wilkins concluded, "It is incomprehensible to us here today, and to millions of others far from here, that the United States government, which can regulate the contents of a pill, apparently is powerless to prevent the physical abuse of citizens within its own borders."

The latest advisory from Washington on the March itself states, "The massive civil rights demonstration in Washington officially has ended. The leaders have play-, pleaded for all to go home peacefully, and with considerable milling and singular quietness, the huge throng has begun to disperse." Speaking of that huge throng, it was estimated at 200,000 by police in Washington today. Police Chief Edward Murray described the gathering of Negroes and white sympathizers as the largest crowd of participants in his knowledge, perhaps the largest in the city's history. He explained that by participants he meant people taking an actual part in a public affair, as distinguished from spectators of the presidential inauguration.

There was a minimum of violence; it was a very peaceful meeting apparently. There was one scare when an anonymous caller called police, told him bombs had been planted in the Washington Monument and in the Lincoln Memorial. This proved to be a false lead, but for a while, the Washington Monument was closed and nobody could ride the elevator to the top of the obelisk.

The force of 5,000 officers, that's policemen, police reservists, national guardsmen, all the rest that had been called out, apparently had little or no occasion to go into action. They were aided in the task of crowd control by off-duty Negro policemen from New York City, and other marshals of the March, as they were called, who were wearing golden-hued armbands.

Well, I'm going to say a little more on Backgrounds tonight, which is coming up in just a few moments. We shall have as our guest, Professor William Kvaraceus, of Tufts University, who will tell us about an educator's view of the freedom march. I hope you'll stay with us until 6:45 to hear Backgrounds, and the commentary of Professor Kvaraceus on this very significant issue.

Well, a round-up of the news, whatever we have time for, the United States called on the United Nations Security Council today, to devote what it called the strongest condemnation against Syria for the ambush slayings of two Israeli farmers on August the 19th. The chief US delegate Adlai Stevenson said the evidence gathered by UN observers supports Israel's charges that the murders were carried out by a Syrian raiding party.

In Saigon, President Ngo Dinh Diem's regime has accused the United States government of being off base in denouncing the military crackdown on his Buddhist opponents. The American criticism was said to show a profoundly unjust doubt in the government of South Vietnam based on totally erroneous information, this from the South Vietnam government. The Saigon note charged that a declaration that the state department issued with President Kennedy's approval on August 21st was prejudicial on the honor and prestige of Vietnam, which has never broken its word to whomever it made promises.

From Houston, Texas today, we learned that the field of 271 men and two women who volunteered to become America's next astronauts, has been whittled down to 30. All men, unfortunately. The Manned Spacecraft Center said today, 10 to 15 will be selected in late October. The men will be interviewed soon by the astronaut selection board, and the spacecraft center director, Robert Gilruth will make the final selection.

In Boston today, the executive council of the Textile Workers Union of America deplored action on the House of Representatives in slashing one million dollars away from a proposed appropriation for federal research to expand textile markets. The Textile Workers Council labeled this move “an unrealistic act which endangers the success of that program.” The 22-member council, which is the top governing body of the union between conventions, urged the Senate to restore the cut, and delete the implication that the textile and apparel research program is to complete, be completed, as they said, with a paltry 625,000 dollar appropriation voted by the House.

Well, as a final word, in as much as the civil rights demonstration was the big news today, there was just a bit of humor in it, and here it is. As the civil rights demonstrators marched today, there came a page call from the platform near the Washington Monument, we're told, which said, "Mister Barnett, governor of Mississippi, will please come to the platform." This page call came in the midst of various other calls for groups and individuals to gather as the remnants of the throng left the Monument grounds. It was said to have drawn a loud laugh from the crowd, but there was no other response. The reference, in case you're interested, was to Ross Barnett, segregationist governor of Mississippi.

We'll be on with more news about segregation with Doctor Kvaraceus of Tufts in just a moment or two. That's the news for August 28th, goodnight.

Substituting for Louis Lyons, you have just heard Myron Spencer, director of the graduate school of business at Northeastern University. [PAUSES] This is the eastern educational network. [PAUSES] Longshoreman philosopher Eric Hoffer reflects on the--

...significant events at seven this evening, followed at nine by a special panel discussion on the implications of the freedom march on WGBH-FM 89.7 megacycles, Boston.

Now for Backgrounds, here is Myron Spencer with this evening's guest; Doctor William Kvara--

...studies at the Lincoln Filene Center, and professor of education at Tufts University. They will discuss how the march looks from Boston.

Good evening. Welcome to Backgrounds, Bill.

It's a pleasure to be here Myron.

I think the view of the Freedom March that you're going to give us is certainly one that we need. We get all kinds of views from self-interested people, from people who call themselves objective, but we haven't had much chance to hear the educator as such, and his view of this freedom march in the civil rights demonstration. Bill, you take the microphone.

I'm not so sure about the educator, that he is that objective, because this is a matter of relativity, as you know. I think with a cause as urgent as this one, it's very difficult let's say to, to remain objective. I think what the viewers saw today, if they followed any part of this program, was an event of some historical importance. But I think it's very easy to get caught up with the event, and to forget that there, this is a process. That what happened before the event, and what happens of course afterwards is, even greater import to us all.

A lot of people Bill sort of take this thing as one gigantic spectacle, don't they?

Well, yes. As a matter of fact Myron, it does remind one of Cecil B. DeMille's productions. There is this tremendous setting a Greek temple, not, with no god, but Abraham Lincoln inside. Here are these massive groups of people. A heroic story of man's struggle, yet this is no filmed fantasy; this is a reality, and a rather grim reality. This is no cardboard backdrop this is a real theme. I think the public was confronted today. The, the cry is loud and strong, and clear and urgent here and now.

Bill, let me interrupt in that. We had one report that I didn't get a chance to, to mention on the summary of the news tonight, that will interest you since you put the matter this way. A report said that there was a kind of festive spirit, a festive atmosphere, almost a picnic feeling in the demonstration today, and among the demonstrators. Is this the sort of thing that you feel is, is not called for as a proper description of this kind of demonstration?

Well, I'm not so sure that I would call it festive. I think it would, may have been restive. I think the group broke up. Well, at first of all, it was rather interesting to see that the parade started a bit early. The crowd got together before the Monument a bit earlier than usual. Usually parades, you know, are late; this one wasn't. And I think you catch the, a bit of the motif.

I think the, I think it's difficult to listen to endless speakers who, who, who prolong their speech beyond four minutes. The, I, I think there was a tone, a rather ominous tone too, in terms of, we can't do business at the same old stand, and we'd better not try. That something will happen.

Well, the note of urgency was certainly sounded by the speakers. Did you want to comment on that point?

Yes. I don't think any Negro or white will forget Doctor King's comment on I have a dream today. This is the American dream. This is a dream that all men are created free and equal. I think this is a rather impassioned highlight of the, of the presentations.

Do you feel at all that this approach, this urgency approach overplays the part? Or do you feel this was called for?

No, I think it was natural and inevitable. And think those who listen had perhaps better hear the message. I think the important question is, what happens now as people go back to their places of business, and the pla-, the places of residence. I have a feeling that people will go back hoping to do something about it. I think there was this urgency and need to converse with each other, to plan with each other, and to implement with each other.

I have, I had a strong feeling, as I watched the program in the early morning, that as you'll, as you watch the commentator make his have his sigh, that there was a, an involvement with the word violence. Although I think this faded during the day. You heard it less and less as the day got longer.

Yes, some people of course were expecting it, and maybe even hoping it would occur.

Well, what is unconscious I think is how to tell that. But that, there was also a concern with numbers. And I noticed that in your own commentary, you indicated there was 200 and 200, 200,000 something of that order. I think this is our Americans concerned with quantification, as though numbers made that difference.

Let, let me correct you that, that was not, that was a report, not commentary.

Well, I, I think it still is a concern on our part. If, if the number were one person deprived, I, I think there was that kind of im-, importance to this. But, this wa-, this came up again and again. The, the comments I thought on the part of the individual, left a good deal to be desired, in terms of pointing out the significance rather than the incidental. The, although I thought that unlike that march out of bondage on the part of the Israelites, that this march was going to end up at the sea, and the sea wasn't of the Senate was not going to open.

Rather skillfully I thought there was a play in and a cut in of a number of interviews with southern Senators. And, the comment would be made that I won't change my vote if there were a million marches outside, and that the march was uncalled for, and unnecessary. This is a distinguished Senator speaking from the south. The, this is a part of the impasse that we're going to face.

Do you think that anyone's views as to how he would look upon a civil rights bill of the kind that I was describing in the news summary, do you think that anyone's views will be changed by this demonstration?

Well, what impressed me was the very pessimistic political attitude of the commentator. At the outset the point was made, that no votes would change, no one's mind would be changed; I think there was a feeling, or the backing up on the part of the implication, the part of some of the Senators that mass demonstrations will not change my vote.

The, but I think we can take a clue from Reuther's speech. This was a very impassioned presentation, but with a very interesting comment, an appeal to reason. And, the message seemed to be here that there was no such thing as human rubbish. And I think the appeal is to scientific method, and to consensus, and to action. And I think this is the way we'll go.

Do you think that the, let's say the man in the street, who saw this television performance, so to speak, do you think that his views were changed in any way?

Well, it's very difficult Myron, to say what people watch, and what they see, and what they listen to, and what they hear. Too many people screen it and filter it, and probably hear what they want to hear, and see what they want to see. Now, you take the matter of the leadership on the part of the Negro that was exemplified here today. My impression was that the leadership was dignified, even aristocratic in nature. Now, other people may see the leadership, and may see the slip of the language, the intonation, and hear and see different. But if these were noble men of nature, aristocrats—

Certainly if the reports we have received are accurate, there can be very little said unfavorably about the Negro leadership, and the conduct of this demonstration, that's right, I believe. Do you think the fact that violence that had been expected, had been anticipated, and as I said, perhaps by some persons actually hoped for, do you think the fact that this was absent would change the views of opponents? Make them feel, well, perhaps we sold these people short, perhaps we underestimated them.

I would hope to believe that any man might change his opinion from his experience, and his viewing. I think this was a powerful lesson for both participants, and for those who are viewing this from the outside.

As you saw it, for example, when you speak of the sort of thing that you feel was most significant in here, what will happen now that the demonstration is over? Did you get the feeling that the impact of this was as strong as the leadership had hoped?

Yes I do. I think every bit as much, and perhaps more than had been hoped for. Again, this is a question of one's own let's say vulnerability, or one's own insulation against the cause of freedom, and also one's prejudices obviously.

Isn't it true probably that a man who feels that we have second class citizens to begin with, would simply interpret this as a vindication of his point of view, rather than as a refutation of it? He'd rationalize.

Well yes, again, you see and hear what you want to see and what you want to hear. I have a feeling that in the comments made by Baldwin, for example, that he probably gets closer to the real issues. He was concerned with the white man's view of the Negro. And generally I believe that he places a greater emphasis, not let's say on education, but I believe on the political aspects of this, and the sexual aspects of this. The white men must get over his tremendous anxiety and fear of the Negro he is saying.

Yes. Do you think incidentally that this has had some impact on Negro youth of a constructive kind?

Yes. As a matter of fact, the whole, I would find justification in this whole process from the point of view of citizenship participation. One of the difficulties with our youth, and of course especially with youth in the lower class milieu, is that they are living in a—

You mean lower-income group? Is that what you're referring?

No, I mean in the stratification within our society.

Social stratification, yeah.

The social stratification, and the social economic, these are somewhat inseparable, as you know Myron. The youth have a kind of no role to play in a vacuum. Now, this has given youth the role, white youth and colored youth. If we wanted to do something, now is the time that we can do something of a great social, political, economic significance. And I think that the youth are finding in this a real function, which they did not have. And I say this is a very, one of the real positive effects that I would extend this down while the marches were used in adults, I think we can extend this downward to here youth have a mission, they function.

I'm glad to hear you say this because it seems to me that the real problem here is with youth. If youth loses hope, then you have a socially explosive situation. Whereas many of the older people, even though they feel that society does not treat them correctly, have reconciled themselves to certain deprivation.

Well, I couldn't help but think of the other marches, you know, we have had children's crusades, and here are, here were massive movements. This, if we view this in historical sequence, I think we have something that we might consider in terms of the contemporary role that we can play, each one of us, without marching on to Jerusalem as the crusaders did, or marching on to Washington even. But, just staying home, talking to each other, planning, implementing.

In other words, treating this as a problem that has a certain amount of stamina, and will be with us for a while.

Well, I'm sure while everybody is moving into third gear, fast gear, that changes have been too slow to suit a lot of people.

Yes, and this was certainly the theme of the, of the demonstration. Well Bill, we just have one minute. Would you like to make any statement in this very short period that's left about your view on today's events?

Oh, I think this, the whole treatment, I felt, while I stole time away from my desk, and I'll probably be regretful tomorrow, I thought the whole treatment was a vindication of TV at its best. I thought the treatment was rather adult and very effective throughout the whole operation. As I said, it wasn't any cardboard Cecil B. DeMille production, it was the reality in the wonderful setting, in front of a Greek temple, with Abraham Lincoln—

Something more constructive than the late late show. [laughs]

Well, I'm afraid so.

Thanks Bill, this has been a very pleasant conversation for Backgrounds.

It's been very pleasant to be here.

You have just heard Backgrounds with Myron Spencer, director of the graduate school of business at Northeastern University. This evening's guest was Doctor William C. Kvaraceus, director of the youth studies at the Lincoln Filene Center, and professor of education at Tufts University. Backgrounds was produced for the ERN by WGBH in Boston. This is the educational radio network.

We invite you to join us at nine this evening for an intercity panel on the implications of the March for Freedom and Jobs on Washington today. This is WGBH-FM 89.7 megacycles, Boston.

This is Bill Cavness speaking from WGBH-FM in Boston. As part of the continuing coverage, covered by the educational radio network of today's March on Washington, we now present exerpts from this afternoon's official ceremony from the Lincoln Memorial. You'll first hear the voice of ERN Reporter, Al Hulsen.

The reverend Patrick O'Boyle, the Archbishop of Washington, has just delivered the invocation. The promo program here is underway, and now to the podium and A. Philip Randolph.

...largest demonstration in the history of this nation. Let the nation and the world know the meaning of our numbers. We are not a pressure group, we are not an organization or a group of organizations, we are not a mob. We are the advanced guard of a massive moral revolution for jobs and freedom. This revolution reverberates throughout the land, touching every city, every town, every village, where black men are segregated, oppressed and exploited.

But this civil rights revolution is not confined to the Negroes, nor is it confined as civil rights. Or our white allies know that they cannot be free, while we are not. And we know that we have no future in a society in which six million, black and white people, are unemployed, and millions more living poverty. Nor is the goal of our civil rights revolution merely the passage of civil rights legislation. Yes, we want all public accommodations open to all citizens, but those accommodations will mean little to those who cannot afford to use them. Yes, we want a fair employment practice act, but what good will it do if profit geared automation destroys the jobs of millions of workers?

Black and white, we want integrated public schools, but that means we also want federal aid to education, all forms of education. We want a free democratic society dedicated to the political economic and social advancement of man along moral lines.

Now, we know that real freedom will require many changes in the nation's political and social philosophies and institutions. For one thing, we must destroy the notion that Mrs. Murphy's property rights include the right to humiliate me because of the color of my skin. The sanctity of private property takes second place to the sanctity of the human personality.

It falls to the Negroes to reassert this proper priority of values, because our ancestors were transformed from human personalities into private property. It falls to us to demand new forms of social planning, to create full employment, and to put automation at the service of human needs, not at the service of profits. We, for we are the worst victims of unemployment.

Negroes are in the forefront of today's movement for social and racial justice, because we know they cannot expect the realization of their aspirations, our aspirations, through the same old anti-democratic social institutions and philosophies that have all along frustrated our aspirations. And so we have taken our struggle into the streets, as the labor movement took its struggle into the streets, as Jesus Christ led the multitude through the streets of Judea.

The plain and simple fact is, that until we went into the streets, the federal government was indifferent to our demands. It was not until the streets and jails of Birmingham were filled that Congress began to think about civil rights legislation.

It was not until thousands demonstrated in the south, that lunch counters and other public accommodations were all integrated. It was not until the Freedom Riders were brutalized in Alabama, that the 1946 supreme court decision, banning discrimination in industry travel was enforced. And it was not until construction sites were picketed in the north that Negro workers were hired.

Those who deplore our (incomprehensible) who exhort patience in the name of a false peace are in fact supporting segregation and exploitation. They would have social peace at the expense of social and racial justice. They are more concerned with easing racial tension than enforcing a racial democracy.

The months and years ahead will bring new evidence of masses in motion for freedom. The March on Washington is not the climax of our struggle, but a new beginning, not only for the Negro, but for all Americans, who search for freedom, and a better life. Look for the enemies of Medicare, of higher minimum wages, of social security, of federal aid to education, and there you will find the enemy of a Negro. The coalition of Dixicrats and reactionary Republicans that seek to dominate the Congress.

We must develop strength in order that we may be able to back and support these civil rights programs of President Kennedy. In the struggle against these forces, all of us should be prepared to take to the streets the spirit and techniques that built the labor movement, founded churches, and now guides the civil rights revolution. Must be a massive crusade. Must be launched against the unholy coalition of Dixiecrats and the racists that seek to strangle Congress.

We're here today are only the first wave. When we leave it will be to carry on the civil rights revolution home with us, and to every nook and cranny of the land. And we shall return again and again to Washington in ever-growing numbers until total freedom is ours.

We shall settle for nothing less, and may God grant that we may have the courage, the strength and faith in this hour of trial by fire, never to falter.

You may be able to hear in the background, the crowd is beginning to chant, "Pass the bill, pass the bill." And of course, this means pass the civil rights legislation that is now before Congress. The crowd is asking the Congressmen that are here to use their efforts to, as they say, pass the bill. Many people are standing up that were seated, and are clapping, and are shouting. Those people would've been standing all morning here since about 11:30, look rather apathetic. I'm sure that they're extremely tired.

Our fellow Americans, in great tribute to the role the Negro woman has played in the cause of freedom, equality and human dignity, I now call on Miss Daisy Bates, that great champion of Negro rights and freedom to give awards.

Of course she's one of the five women who led the special part of the March, which went down Independence Avenue. She'll be called on to make a speech for this large group.

...and Miss Gloria Richardson, Miss Daisy Bates.

Mister Randolph, friends. The women of this country, Mister Randolph pledged to you, to Martin Luther King, Roy Wilkins, and all of you, fighting for civil liberties. That we will join hands with you, as women of this country. Rosa Greg, Vice President. Dorothy Height, the national council of Negro women. The Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, the Methodist church women. All the women pledge that we will join hands with you, we will kneel in, we will sit in until we can eat at any counter in the United States.

We will walk until we are free, until we can walk to any school and take our children to any school in the United States.

And we will sit in, and we will kneel in, and we will lie in if necessary, until every Negro in America can vote. This we pledge you, the women of America.

Again, the crowd is chanting, "Pass the bill, pass the bill." As we've said many times before, this crowd stretches all the way back from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Memorial. More and more people are now getting into the trees around the Lincoln Memorial. And one young fellow is waving a sign saying, "We demand an end to bias now."

Another speech from the stage at the Lincoln Memorial.

I represent officially the Commission on Religion and Race of the National Council of Churches. And I am honored to be here in the highest tradition of that council and of the churches which constitute it, thus to represent one of the sponsoring bodies of this March for Jobs and Freedom. For many years now, the National Council of Churches, and most of its constituent communions have said all the right things about civil rights.

Our official pronouncement for years have called for a non-segregated church in a non-segregated society. But as of August 28th, 1963, we have achieved neither a non-segregated church, nor a non-segregated society. And it is partly because the churches of America have failed to put their own houses in order.

That 100 hundred years after the emancipation proclamation, and 175 years after the adoption of the constitution, and 173 years after the adoption of the bill of rights, the United States of America still faces a racial crisis. We do not therefore come to this Lincoln Memorial in any arrogant spirit of moral or spiritual superiority to set the Congress or the nation straight, or to judge, or to denounce the American people in whole or in part.

Rather we come late, late we come, in the reconciling and repentance spirit in which Abraham Lincoln of Illinois once replied to a delegation of morally arrogant churchmen who came to see him. He said, "Never say God is on our side, rather pray that we may be found on God's side."

We come in the fear of God that moved Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, whose memorial stands across the lagoon, once to say, "Indeed I tremble for my country, when I reflect that God is just." Yes, we come to march behind and with these amazingly able leaders of the Negro Americans, who to the shame of almost every white American, have alone. And without us, mirror the suffering of the cross of Jesus Christ.

They have offered their bodies through arrests and violence, to the hurt and the indignity of fire hoses and taunts of derision, and of poverty, and some, death, for this just cause. We come, and late we come, but we come to present ourselves this day, our souls and bodies to be a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is our reasonable service. And a kind of tangible and visible sacrament, which alone in times like these can manifest to a troubled world, the grace that is available at communion table or high altar.

We come in prayer, that we in our time may be more worthy to bare the name our tongues so fluently profess. We come in faith, that the God who made us and gave His Son for us, and for our salvation, will overrule the fears and hatreds that so far have prevented the establishment of full racial justice in our beloved country. We come in hope, that those who have marched today are but a token of a new and massive high determination, or all men of religion and of patriotism, to win in this nation under God, liberty, and justice for all.

And we come, late we come, we come in that love revealed in Jesus Christ, which reconciles into true community. All men of every color, race and nation, who respond in faith and obedience to him.

Remarks by the Doctor Eugene Carson Blake, stated clerk, the director of the United Presbyterian Church of the United States of America.

...by the great singer, Miss Marian Anderson, with a solo. Miss Marian Anderson.

We might mention that Miss Marian Anderson was expected to open this ceremony by singing the national anthem, but had not arrived at that time at two o'clock. Now, here is Miss Marian Anderson. Again, the dignitaries who were seated are standing and applauding the famous singer.

We would like to do for you a Negro spiritual, which has been the favorite of many audiences throughout the United States. At the piano is Mister Fax. We would like to do for you, He's Got the Whole World in His Hands.

Marian Anderson.

The military policemen here are certainly having a difficult time holding the crowd behind the fence in front of the Lincoln Memorial. We return now to A. Philip Randolph.

I have the pleasure to introduce young John Lewis, national chairman of the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee. Brother John Lewis.

We march today for jobs and freedom, but we have nothing to be proud of. Of 100 and 1,000 of our brothers are not here, for they're receiving starvation wages, or no wages at all. While we stand here, they're sharecroppers. In the delta of Mississippi, watering the fields working for less than three dollars a day, 12 hours a day. While we stand here, there are students in jail on trumped up charges. Our brother James Farmer, along with many others, is also in jail.

We come here today with a great sense of misgiving. It is true that we support the administration civil rights bill; we support it with great reservation, however. Unless Title three is put in this bill, there's something to protect the young children, and old women who must face police dogs and fire hoses in assault, while they engage in peaceful demonstrations.

In this present form, this bill will not protect the citizens of Danville, Virginia, who must live in constant fear of a police state. It will not protect the hundreds and thousands of people, that have been arrested on trump charges. What about the three young men, SNCC field secretary, in Americus, Georgia, who faced the death penalty for engaging in peaceful protest.

As it stands, not a voting section of this deal when I have the thousand of black people who want to vote. If it not help the citizens of Mississippi, of Alabama and Georgia, who are qualified to vote for lack of sixth grade education. One man, one vote is the ethical cry. It is ours too. It must be ours.

We must have legislation that will protect the Mississippi sharecropper, who is put off of his farm because he dare to register to vote. We need to be able to provide for the homeless and starving people of this nation. We need a bill to ensure the quality of a maid, who earns five dollars a week in the home of a family who full income is 100,000 dollars a year. We must have a good FEPC Bill.

My friends, let us not forget that we are involved in a serious social revolution, for by and large, American politics is dominated by politicians who build their career on immoral compromising and allowing themselves an open form of a political, economic and social exploitation.

There are exceptions of course, we salute those. But what political leader can stand up and say my party is a party of principle? For the party of Kennedy is also the party of Eastland.

The party of Javits is also the party of Goldwater. Where is our party? Where is a political party that would make it unnecessary to march on Washington? Where is the political party that would make it unnecessary to march in the streets of Birmingham? Where is the political party that will protect the citizens of Albany, Georgia?

Do you know that in Albany, Georgia, nine of our leaders have been indicted, not by the Dixiecrats, but by the federal government for peaceful protest. But what did the federal government do when Albany's deputy sheriff beat attorney C.B. King and left him half-dead? What did the federal government do when the local police official kicked and assaulted the pregnant wife of Slater King, and she lost her baby?

Those who have said, be patient and wait, we must say that we cannot be patient, we do not want our freedom gradually, but we want to be free now.

We are tired. We tired of being beaten by policemen. We're tired of seeing our people locked up in jail over and over again, and then you holler, be patient. How long can we be patient? We want our freedom and we want it now.

We do not have to go to jail. But we will go to jail if this is the price we must pay for love, brotherhood and true peace. I appeal to all of you to get in this great revolution that is sweeping this nation. Get in and stay in the streets of every city, every village and hamlet of this nation until true freedom comes, until a revolution of 1776 is complete.

We must get in this revolution, and complete the revolution, for in the delta of Mississippi and South West Georgia, in the black depths of Alabama, in Harlem, in Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, and all over this nation the black mass is on the March for Jobs and Freedom.

You're talking about slow down and stop? We will not stop, all of the forces of Eastland, Barnett, Wallace and Thurmond will not stop this revolution.

If we do not get meaningful legislation out of this Congress, the time will come, but we will not confine our march into Washington. We will march through the south, through the streets of Jackson, through the streets of Danville, through the streets of Cambridge, through the streets Birmingham.