Northwest Defender_1963-08-29

NORTHWEST DEFENDER Published at 3928 ~. Williams BE 4-7265 Circulation by Mall - Newsboys . Bualneu Please Forward All Mail/Advertising To: Northwest Defender, P. 0. Box 1874. Portland, EDITORIAL March Stirs Conscience of the World Freedom-the sound and spirit of the word alike-reverberated yesterday across the grounds of the Washington Monument. At the end of the Mall, inside the great Memoria•! erected to his memory, the gaunt, grave, silent figure of the Great Emancipator sat and listened, remembering, per– haps, the words of other maTchers for freedom long, long ago: "We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand strong." Surely Abraham Lincoln yesterday heard the voices singing "Glory, Glory, Hallelujah," demanding fulfillment at last of the promi3e for which he lived and died, and shouting with simple faith in themselves and in <their fellow Americans: "We sha:ll overcome ..• We shall overcome." They came from every portion of America. Cali– fornia had a throng there under a proudly held banner of the state. There was a delegation from West Memphis, Ark. The NAACP of Evansville, lnd., turned out in strength. So did the NAACP of Shreveport, La., and of Erie, Pa., and of Pitts– field, Mass., and of an endless catalogue of the towns and cities of the land. Every kind and class of American was there. The Vermont Stone Cutters Association formed a goodly group. The Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workers of North America, the UnHed Automobile Workers, the civil libertarians of every hue, the Protestants, Catholics and Jews, white men and black men, black women and white women, children and their parents and their grand· parents, the humble and the great-all were pres– ent. America sent to that great meE!ting in her Capital the represent·atives of every one of her manifold aspects and estates. It was part picnic, paTt prayer meeting, part political ra:lly, combining the best and most moving features of each. It was a happy crowd, much more gay than grim, full of warmth and good feeling and friendliness, instinct with faith and high hope, united in a sense of brotherhood and common humanity. It was a most orderly malfch, not wi·th the precision of a militaTy parade but with the order that grows ou:t of a clear sense of common purpose, a fixed and certain destination. No one could view that vast sea of faces turned upward toward the Lincoln statue without an awareness of commitment and dedication. No one could hear the scourging words spoken yesterday by A. Philip Randolph and Martin Luther King and others without a sense of guilt and grief and shame. No one could hear the tones of Marian Ander· son's deep and beautiful voice singing, "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands," without profound emotion and involvement. If the words spoken yesterday were heard by Abraham Lincoln at one end of the Mall, let us h~pe that they were heard by the Congress of the United States at the other end. For this was something much more than a mere outlet f~r emo– tion. Dr. King was altogether right in saying that "Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the Nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizen· ship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will con· tinue to shake the foundations of our Nation until the bright day of justice emerges." There is a magnificent opportunity at hand to cut ~t once and for all a cancer in America demeaning and degrading to all Americans. Not Negroes alone, not white libertarians alone but Americ~ns in gen– eral marched yesterday-and must marrch in unity and in brotherhood tomorrow and tomorrow. 'Jobs And Freedom' Bus Begins Long Trek To Washington