On the 61st Anniversary of the March on Washington: We Can't Go Back
Our guest author is Walter Naegle, Bayard Rustin's partner from 1977-87, co-author of "Troublemaker for Justice –- The Story of Bayard Rustin, the man behind The March on Washington”, and a historical consultant on the film "Rustin."
Last November’s release of the Netflix docudrama “Rustin” brought the name of life-long social justice activist Bayard Rustin into the homes of millions worldwide. The film, released by Higher Ground Productions (founded by Barack and Michelle Obama), featured an award-winning performance by Colman Domingo, who brought to life Rustin’s brilliance, integrity, and creativity. The plot focusses on Rustin’s organizing the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, perhaps the most iconic demonstration in American history. The March was pulled together with remarkable speed, and according to Ernest Green, a member of Rustin’s staff that summer, without cellular phones, faxes or computers. “All of this was organized on 3 x 5 cards out of Bayard’s back pocket.”1 Green, the first Black graduate of Little Rock’s Central High School, later worked with Rustin in the Recruitment and Training Program, a pioneering effort to increase minority membership in trade unions. He then went on to serve as Assistant Secretary of Labor in the Carter administration.
The March was a textbook example of coalition building, a uniting of forces with somewhat divergent interests, but with a common goal, in this case the advancement of civil rights for African Americans, particularly in the areas of labor and employment. Originally called a March on Washington for Jobs, the “Freedom” piece was added to muster support for the flawed, but important, civil rights bill proposed by President John F. Kennedy. It was also a nod to the courage displayed by civil rights workers who had faced a brutal backlash during that spring and summer.
The labor movement was a key element in the coalition, particularly the United Auto Workers, whose leader, Walter Reuther addressed the crowd of 250,000. The AFL-CIO did not officially endorse the March, but union members were a significant presence on the Washington Mall that day. Teachers, autoworkers, electrical workers, garment workers, and others travelled to Washington on planes, buses, and trains to see history in the making. Many called Penn South, the affordable housing complex built by the International Ladies Garment Workers Union in New York City, their home. Rustin himself was a resident, as were some of his young staff portrayed in the film: Rachelle Horowitz, Eleanor Holmes Norton, and sisters Joyce and Dorie Ladner. Two others, Norman Hill and Tom Kahn later moved into Penn South. Also featured in Rustin was Cleveland Robinson, a leader in District 65, who was appointed Administrative Director of the March. In 1957, Robinson spoke at the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom calling for unity in the fight for civil rights.
The success of the March ushered in the passage of both the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, but the issue of jobs did not receive the attention it warranted. Indeed, some movement leaders seemed to miss the connection between civil rights and labor, despite the fact that A. Philip Randolph, the March’s Director was an important voice in the labor movement, having organized the nation’s first African American trade union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Cars Porters. James Farmer, head of the Congress of Racial Equality, later said “Bayard’s commitment is to labor, not to the Black man,” as if one had to choose between the two.2 But Randolph and Rustin understood that “freedom” meant little without access to meaningful employment with a livable wage that could lift Blacks out of poverty. Under the auspices of the A. Philip Randolph Institute they issued “A Freedom Budget for All Americans,” in 1966 “in recognition that poverty and deprivation, as surely as denial of the right to vote, are erosive of human freedom and democracy… Materially as well as spiritually, a society afflicted by poverty deprives all of its citizens of security and well-being.”3 The Freedom Budget was a serious plan to budget resources from 1966-1975 to achieve “Freedom from Want.” Although it was widely distributed and heralded by many, the funding to enact its recommendations was never allocated.
Six decades later much has changed for the better despite efforts to turn back the clock. Racism, in the codified and crude manner that existed, is now “called out” as un-American. Homophobia, which had long denied Bayard Rustin leadership roles he rightly deserved, and which threatened to derail the March itself is similarly, though not as universally , deemed unacceptable. As the LGBTQ+ rights movement began to rise, individual unions began passing resolutions banning discrimination based on sexual orientation, and today Pride At Work is a powerful voice within the AFL-CIO. Randi Weingarten (AFT), Stuart Appelbaum (RWDSU) and Mary Kay Henry (SEIU – retired) all serve the cause of labor without hiding their queer identities.
I recently had the privilege of attending the AFT convention in Houston. Bayard’s long time comrade and friend, Rachelle Horowitz, was this year’ recipient of the Bayard Rustin Human Rights Award. She began working with Bayard as the Montgomery Bus Boycott was approaching victory. She stayed with him -- demonstrating, organizing, sometimes risking arrest -– as she worked for a variety of labor-related organizations. Sixty years ago she was arrested during the opening of the New York World’s Fair. She, along Bayard, Jim Farmer, Tom Kahn, Michael Harrington, and others, held a sit in to protest the lack of jobs for minority workers. After working with Bayard through the early years of the A. Philip Randolph Institute, she left to become the first Political Affairs Director of the AFT. Rachelle was doubtful that she deserved the award, but in my brief remarks, I observed that she embodied the transition from protest to politics -- one that Bayard had made during the 1960s. This does not mean abandoning protest as a tool when necessary, but that one must use their political power to enact the change that protest demands.
The progress that we’ve made over the last sixty-one years can be seen as a product of the 1963 March on Washington, for it was that protest that inspired the social justice movements that followed, giving people a sense of what we can achieve politically when we are united in a progressive coalition. This election year we are faced with attempts to restrict voter access, curb civil liberties, limit the power of labor unions, turn back LGBTQ+ progress, and deny women needed health care. We can't go back.
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1. Ernest Green speaking in "Brother Outsider, The Life of Bayard Rustin." Question Why Films, 2003.
2. James Farmer, quote in the NY Times obituary of Rustin, August 25, 1987
3. "A Freedom Budget for All Americans." Introduction by A. Philip Randolph. Published 1966 by the A. Philip Randolph Institute.
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On the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, the Shanker Institute published a series of lesson plans and materials by accomplished AFT teachers about this historic event for use by K-12 teachers across the country.