The complex historical events surrounding the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom have been simplified and polished over time, as is often the case. This applies not only to Martin Luther King’s historic speech, which highlighted the ongoing issue of Black poverty before envisioning racial harmony, but also to the speech of John Lewis, the youngest speaker at the march at the age of 23. Although Lewis was later revered as a saint before his death in 2020, back then he was seen as a rebellious figure leading a new generation of activists. However, neither of these portrayals fully captures the principled yet pragmatic Lewis, who boldly criticized the deficiencies in the civil rights bill without undermining the unity of the day.
Examining Lewis’s experience with his controversial speech gives us insight into the competing political pressures at play during this time. It sheds light on the challenging context of a protest movement trying to find the right balance between defiance and accommodation. Striking this delicate balance remains a challenge and a necessity for modern protest movements advocating for social change.
Lewis’s inclusion as a speaker at the March on Washington was somewhat unexpected. Just weeks prior, he had been appointed chairman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), a newly formed organization that emerged during the lunch-counter sit-ins of 1960. Among SNCC’s units, Lewis’s Nashville chapter was the most dedicated to Gandhian nonviolence, and he had absorbed these teachings more thoroughly than his peers in Nashville. After the successful integration of public facilities in Nashville in May 1963, Lewis, with his gentle demeanor and unwavering commitment to peaceful methods, was a natural choice to represent SNCC publicly.
While these peaceful methods led to significant victories in Nashville and Birmingham, discontent with nonviolence was growing. The Birmingham campaign sparked demonstrations in 200 cities across the nation, some of which turned violent and fueled concerns of widespread chaos that summer. Media commentators began referring to this new approach as “new militancy.” King even used this ambiguous term in his March on Washington speech. For Lewis and others like him, militancy did not mean abandoning nonviolence, but rather intensifying the protest with a defiant edge. However, King’s rivals, such as Representative Adam Clayton Powell Jr. and Malcolm X, warned of riots if the government did not take action on civil rights.
To prevent violence, President John F. Kennedy announced a comprehensive civil rights bill in June. Around the same time, the elder statesmen of the civil rights movement, A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin, were gathering support for the Washington march. Many of the young radicals in SNCC were hesitant, viewing the march as a conservative event organized by the traditional Black power structure. However, Lewis, an optimist by nature who preferred cooperation and compromise, was in favor of participating.
On June 22, Lewis, who had been living in a small shack on an Alabama farm just a few years prior, joined other civil rights leaders in the White House to discuss the march with President Kennedy. Kennedy initially tried to dissuade them from holding the march, fearing it could turn destructive based on the earlier outbreaks of violence. However, after King, Randolph, and others made it clear that the march would proceed, Kennedy reluctantly agreed and shifted his focus to turning the event into a rally in support of his bill.
SNCC also achieved a victory of its own. Previously excluded from major civil rights group meetings, SNCC gained recognition as one of the main sponsors of the march. This meant that Lewis, with his largest audience ever, would have a speaking opportunity.
Despite his modesty, Lewis believed he had been chosen to speak not because of his individual merits but because of SNCC’s role. He wanted his speech to reflect the views of SNCC, which meant taking a more combative stance than he might have otherwise chosen. With input from colleagues, Lewis crafted his ideas for the speech in SNCC’s Atlanta headquarters. Just days before the march, Lewis traveled to New York City, where he shared his speech with fellow activists, including Eleanor Holmes and a young Bob Dylan.
Lewis’s speech was tough and critical. He expressed SNCC’s inability to wholeheartedly support the administration’s civil rights bill, viewing it as insufficient and tardy. He also condemned the Justice Department for charging SNCC workers in Albany, Georgia, while failing to indict police officers responsible for brutalizing a local activist and his pregnant sister-in-law. Some even suggested making the speech more provocative by invoking General Sherman’s destructive “March to the Sea” during the Civil War, but in a nonviolent context.
The day before the march, Lewis encountered objections from various individuals, including Archbishop Patrick O’Boyle of Washington. These objections led to revisions, including the removal of a line criticizing “patience” as a dirty word. Despite these alterations, Lewis faced further challenges on the day of the march, with leaders questioning his use of phrases like “revolution” and the “masses.” Ultimately, Randolph defended Lewis, and King pointed out that the speech did not reflect Lewis’s true character. These discussions led to further revisions made by James Forman, who typed the changes on a small typewriter in a vestibule of the Lincoln Memorial.
Lewis’s speech focused on the weaknesses of the voting rights provisions in the bill and the lack of a permanent Fair Employment Practices Committee to address job opportunities for Black individuals. He also criticized the bill for not including Title III of the 1957 Civil Rights Act, which empowered the U.S. attorney general to sue local officials over police abuses. Despite his confrontational remarks, Lewis acknowledged and celebrated the achievements of the march.
In summary, the 1963 March on Washington signifies a complex and nuanced moment in history. Individual speeches, such as those delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. and John Lewis, deserve careful examination, as they exemplify the evolving nature of the protest movement at the time. Lewis’s experience, in particular, offers insights into the difficult political landscape in which protests for social change navigate the fine line between defiance and compromise.
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