50th Anniversary March on Washington: A Higher Education Perspective

Over the next few days, I'm attending the Whitney M. Young, Jr. Urban Leadership Development Conference hosted by the National Urban League. This year, the courses and keynoters reflect the theme, Project Lead: Advancing Our Future. You can enjoy the realtime tweets of my experience (@WinniPaul or @RhodeIslandYP), but I'll be posting a full blog about that experience later in the month. In the meantime, please enjoy reading about my experience at the 50th Anniversary March on Washington with these great leaders, the National Urban League Young Professionals.

~ Winni

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This past August, I had the privilege to experience the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington (#MOW50) also known as the Realize The Dream Rally. I rode down to Washington, D.C. with my local #NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) chapter to participate in this once in a lifetime experience as a member of the #NULYP (National Urban League Young Professionals). Prior to my journey I was not as well versed on how education was an important issue to the march back in 1963 and today. The 50th Anniversary March on Washington took place on Saturday, August 24, 2013 at the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall. Fifty years after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his historic “I Have a Dream” speech, leaders from civil rights, organized labor, housing, media, education and politics gathered in the nation’s capital to urge Congress to create more jobs, protect voting rights, equality for the LGBT community, and to address the barrage of recent attacks on immigration and workers’ rights.

On August 28, 1963, members of civil rights, labor, and religious organizations galvanized their constituents and people from different backgrounds to march for jobs and freedom. It was one of the largest political assemblies for human rights in US history. Some of the goals established by the march’s leaders and organizers include elimination of school segregation and creation of job training programs, especially for the unemployed. This was where, standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial, where the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. In the speech, Dr. King stated “We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.” But have we marched ahead in the area of education? What collaborations has higher education made with other industries to move our mission, the education of tomorrow’s leaders, forward? What progress has been made when graduation rates are low, student loans are at an all-time high, and job prospects are bleak for many?

On August 24, 2013, many educators and education focused organizations were present to participate in this landmark event including the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), United Federation of Teachers (UFT), and noted college professors and administrators. Dr. Angel Cabrera, president of George Mason University, spoke at the event sharing these thoughts: 

“Thousands of young men and women are denied a college education every year. They are shut out of the American dream, not because they are not smart enough, not because they are not talented enough, not because they’re not ready to work hard enough. But because their parents may not be rich enough. Because they may not be American enough. Because they may not be documented enough. Dr. King said ‘injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ He said ‘the time is always right to do what is right.’ I say the time to breakdown the barriers of access to education is now. I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for education. Most of us wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for education. The American dream is not a destination, it is a struggle. It is a struggle that takes the work of all of us. Let’s struggle together. Let’s dream together.”  

What wrongs of the educational process can be righted? What are our institutions doing to improve access and breakdown unnecessary barriers to education? I know I wouldn’t be where I am today without access to education as a foreign-born, first-generation college student and the opportunity to become an American citizen.

Other notable educations who spoke about their #Dream4ED at the #RealizeTheDream Rally were: 

• Marcus Bright, executive director of Education for a Better America
• Michael Mulgrew, president of UFT
• Jeffrey Sachs, director of Earth Institute at Columbia University
• Michael Eric Dyson, Sociology professor at Georgetown University
• Dennis Van Roekel, president of National Education Association
• Rajmohan Gandhi, research professor at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in the Center for South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies
• Randi Weingarten, president of AFT
• Visit: http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/MarchR to view these and additional speeches

Later in the speech, Dr. King spoke of his dreams, stating “I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal’...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.” What would Dr. King’s dream be for higher education? What have we done in the last 50 years to realize that dream? 

The African American Leaders Convening (AALC), a coalition of civil rights, social justice, labor, business and community leaders, announced the release of 21st Century Agenda for Jobs and Freedom at the Realize The Dream Rally. This agenda contains a vision for economic recovery and the rebirth for urban communities, low-income, and working-class Americans. The 21st Century Agenda for Jobs and Freedom outlines five critical domestic goals: 

1. Achieve Economic Parity for African-Americans 
2. Promote Equity in Educational Opportunity
3. Protect and Defend Voting Rights
4. Promote a Healthier Nation by Eliminating Healthcare Disparities
5. Achieve Comprehensive Criminal Justice System Reform.

When educators band together, much can be done to change the ails affecting our students and communities. Dr. King stated in his “I Have a Dream” speech, “we have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.” What are you willing to do now to improve the present and future of our field, students, and communities?

To learn more about the original March on Washington, check out this suggested reading list:

• The March on Washington, by William P. Jones (W.W. Norton, 2013)
• The King Years: Historic Moments in the Civil Rights Movement, by Taylor Branch (Simon & Schuster, 2013)
• My Daddy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., by Martin Luther King, III (Harpers & Collins, 2013)
• Bearing the Cross: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, by David Garrow (William Morrow Paperbacks, 2004).
• Let Freedom Ring: Stanley Tretick's Iconic Images of the March on Washington, by Kitty Kelley (Thomas Dunne Books, 2013)

*** This post was originally published in the NASPA Region 1 October 2013 newsletter ***

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