Civil Rights Movement

As Catherine reads her father’s journal, we learn Douglas’ story, which takes us to the March on Washington, the Birmingham Church bombings, and the Selma March.

The March on Washington

Excerpt from Douglas’ Journal

September 5, 1963
I met Grace the night before the March on Washington. Black hair pulled back in a barrette. Her green eyes sparkled as she chatted with the bartender. The curve of her breasts under a yellow sweater, which reached down to long legs in black pants. When I finally got her attention, I told her I’d seen her walking in Valley Green. A blank look at first. Then, recognition. Her friends, another attorney and his wife, joined her. He was William Thompson, one of the Freedom Riders in ‘61. World War II veteran became a pacifist after Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
As we talked about the March, Grace was passionate about the changes that needed to take place in the country. Civil Rights legislation. Protection for voting rights.
I lost Grace and her friends during the March as we moved toward the Mall. A sea of humanity, more black than white; a moment of unity amid years of strife and violence. I was moved to tears by King’s speech… “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” His dream is the American Dream, reading back to the Declaration of Independence. The powerful rhetoric of the prophet Isaiah, crying out that justice like a mighty stream…

Learn more about the March on Washington

Civil Rights March on Washington, Reflecting Pool, August 28, 1963 (Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration via Jewish Women’s Archive/jwa.org)

Leaders of the march in front of the statue of Abraham Lincoln *(Courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration via Wikimedia Commons)*

The March On Washington: The Spirit Of The Day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jw9NcaI1wJM

THE MARCH | The day of the event | PBS

The March On Washington: How The Movement Began

Martin Luther King, Jr. – “I Have A Dream Speech”

Further Reading

Strength to Love by Martin Luther King Jr.

His Truth is Marching On: John Lewis and the Power of Hope by Jon Meacham

Recommended Websites

Smithsonian Magazine
An Oral History of the March on Washington
Americans who marched on Washington 50 years ago under a blazing sun recall the day they were part of a turning point in history

Birmingham Bombings

Excerpt from Douglas’ Journal

September 16, 1963
I couldn’t sleep. Four little girls smiling, dressed in white dresses and lace-trimmed gloves and patent leather shoes, dressed for children’s church. Cynthia Wesley. Carole Robertson. Addie MacCollins. Denise McNair. Four KKK planted at least fifteen sticks of dynamite connected to a timing device.
Was this a response to the March? The powerful in this country who want to keep black and white apart? Or an angry cry from the powerless, using dynamite to claim the power they think they should have?
Margaret, are you grieving
Over Goldengrove unleaving?…
It is the blight man was born
It is Margaret you mourn for.
The CBS News showed the rubble, the church’s cornerstone blown out. The stained-glass window of Jesus was still intact, but the face of Jesus gone.
“Suffer the little children to come unto me, for such in the Kingdom of God.” Why did they have to die? King envisions a world where these four little black children will hold hands with white children. How many black children must die to make this possible? The face of Jesus gone. Who remains, watching over the other children in Birmingham who must go to sleep at night in fear?

Learn more about the Birmingham Bombings

The Welsh Window. Designed by artist John Petts, the stained-glass window depicts a black Christ with his arms outstretched; his right arm pushing away hatred and injustice, the left extended in an offering of forgiveness.
(public domain, This image is available from the United States Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs Division *via Wikimedia Commons*)

March in memory of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing victims (This work is from the U.S. News & World Report collection at the Library of Congress via Wikimedia Commons)

Recommended Websites

The Birmingham Times
The Iconic Wales Window Inside 16th Street Baptist Church

The Selma March

Excerpt from Douglas’ Journal

March 7, 1965
There is nothing “more powerful than the rhythm of marching feet.” – MLK
The girls were down for a nap. Elizabeth was out to lunch with her stepmother. Ray called to tell me to turn on the television. Marchers in Selma were crossing the Emmus Pettus Bridge, facing a sea of helmeted, uniformed Alabama State Troopers. John Lewis led the march. Tear gas was released as they moved toward the troopers. Marchers were attacked with billy clubs. The local organizer, Amelia Boynton, was knocked down, Lewis was clubbed in the head. The world was watching. Would there be action now, change?
I heard Catherine cry, so I turned the television off and went to the nursery to hold her. I want a better world for you. I bounced her up and down until she stopped crying.

Learn more about the Selma March