https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/august-28-2026
"The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom that took place on August 28,
1963, in Washington, D.C., is remembered today primarily because it was the
occasion when the final speaker, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., stood
on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered what became known as the “I
Have a Dream” speech.
While that speech is often excerpted to make it sound like King’s concerns were
simply about the way individuals thought about race, in fact, the march’s
organizers, Black labor leader A. Philip Randolph and civil rights leader
Bayard Rustin, focused on economic discrimination and the lack of decent jobs
for Black Americans. In the process of organizing the march, they brought on
board not only civil rights organizers but also white labor organizer Walter
Reuther, the head of the United Auto Workers.
King acknowledged the economic focus of the march when he centered his speech
around the idea that Black Americans had received “a promissory note” that had
become “a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.’”
“But,” he said, “we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
