Nobody Turn Me Around
On Aug. 28, 1963, as part of the historic March on Washington, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his electrifying, era-defining 鈥淚 Have a Dream鈥� speech in front of some 250,000 spectators and a national television audience. In the end, Dr. King鈥檚 鈥淚 Have a Dream鈥� speech would move a nation to action. President John F. Kennedy would be assassinated by that year鈥檚 end, but Lyndon B. Johnson would carry on the martyred president鈥檚 civil rights agenda (and then some). Both a public accommodations bill and a voting rights bill would become law, despite passionate opposition from segregationists.
Behind the scenes, however, the March on Washington almost collapsed under the strain of massive bickering and internal disagreements. In Nobody Turn Me Around, academic and author Charles Euchner does an excellent job of telling the lesser-known story of the internal contradictions that nearly destroyed the historic event.
Pulling the march together was far from easy. Organizers intended to put public pressure on the Kennedy administration to support a new civil rights bill that would guarantee blacks equal treatment in public accommodations. The march was organized jointly by several civil rights groups around a theme of nonviolent political action. Like any mobilization of a broad coalition, the more radical elements inside the civil rights movement complained that the message was being watered down for mass consumption. President Kennedy, unsurprisingly, asked organizers to cancel the march, which he deemed needlessly provocative. Black Muslim Malcolm X, on the other hand, refused to join because it wasn鈥檛 confrontational enough, satirizing the event as the 鈥淔arce on Washington.鈥�
The two men who seemed to arouse the most heated debate were prime march organizer Bayard Rustin and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee president John Lewis. Rustin was attacked both inside and outside the civil rights movement as a political liability with three strikes against him as a former communist, a draft dodger, and a homosexual. Indeed, segregationist South Carolina Sen. Strom Thurmond would publicly attack Rustin, asserting that Rustin鈥檚 鈥渂ackground showed the moral depravity of the March on Washington.鈥�
As for Lewis, he had planned to deliver an incendiary speech castigating Kennedy鈥檚 proposed civil rights bill as too little too late. As Euchner describes it, Lewis鈥檚 radicalism threatened to shatter the march鈥檚 fragile coalition. Roman Catholic Archbishop Patrick O鈥橞oyle, a Kennedy ally, 鈥渨as supposed to deliver the invocation, but he would not come...,鈥� writes Euchner, 鈥渦nless John Lewis deleted the objectionable passages from his speech.鈥� Euchner details the ensuing drama as march organizers pleaded with Lewis to tone down his rhetoric. Though he relented in the end, Lewis鈥檚 final speech was anything but conciliatory: 鈥淲e must say wake up, America, wake up,鈥� Lewis intoned, 鈥渇or we cannot stop and we will not and cannot be patient.鈥�
Euchner also offers us accounts from dozens of grass-roots civil rights activists who rode buses and trains to Washington from places like Harlem, N.Y.; Georgia; and Mississippi. There were tensions here, too, as black activists hardened by police brutality argued about the wisdom of making common cause with white liberals. Euchner also explores conflicts over protest music, with white performers like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez taking criticism from black activists like Dorie Ladner 鈥渢hat the March on Washington turned music into a passive spectator activity. It was a concert, a Newport festival, not a rousing call to action.鈥�
Euchner fittingly concludes with King鈥檚 epic speech, every bit as indignant as Lewis鈥檚, yet elevated by its soaring biblical language. 鈥淣o, no, we are not satisfied,鈥� King told his listeners, 鈥渁nd we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.鈥� Euchner explores the gathering power of King鈥檚 speech as he describes the historic sufferings of black Americans as something redemptive, uplifting. 鈥淸S]uffering 鈥� like Christ鈥檚 suffering on the cross 鈥� can bring a better day,鈥� King insisted. 鈥淭hat suffering can change people鈥檚 hearts. That suffering can clear poison from the system.鈥�
Chuck Leddy is a freelance writer and member of the National Book Critics Circle.
