Bill Whitaker and his father's experience at the March on Washington
CBS News asked noted figures in the arts, business and politics about their experience in today's civil rights movement, or about figures who inspired them in their activism.
Bill Whitaker, CBS News correspondent, "60 Minutes"
Can America achieve a "post-racial" society? How?
A few years ago a news assignment brought me to New York from my home base in Los Angeles. My cousin, an elementary school teacher in Queens, asked me if I would come speak to the morning assembly at her school. I hesitated, wondering what in the world I'd have to say to a school full of Kindergarten through sixth-grade students. I am very close to my cousin, so I couldn't say "no," so bright and early one morning I went to Queens.
I grew up in suburban Philadelphia in the 1960s, where diversity was largely an issue of black and white. I was unprepared for what I saw at that elementary school in Queens: children from every part of the planet. There were young Sikh boys with turbans, shy girls from Africa, smiling girls from India with long braids down their backs. There were children from Peru, from Pakistan, from Poland, from Trinidad, from Thailand -- children of every race, every color, every culture walking single file into the auditorium.
At the principal's instruction, this diverse student body put hands to hearts and said the Pledge of Allegiance to the American flag. Then hundreds of little voices joined to sing "God Bless America."
It was a moving moment. Nothing I would say that day about education and hard work would compare with what I learned that day. I saw the future: Children from all over the world becoming Americans.
How do we achieve a post-racial society? Just wait.
Is there something that you'd like to share about your personal connection to civil rights issues?
On August 28, 1963 my father, William Whitaker Sr., went to the March on Washington. My mother, sisters and I at home in Pennsylvania scoured all the faces of the marchers on TV, hoping to catch a glimpse of him. Of course we couldn't pick him out of the hundreds of thousands, but with this recollection that he left us, we get to see my father very well:
"We left the Lansdowne Presbyterian Church, Lansdowne, Pa. about 6:30 a.m. Reverend Richard Meloy was in charge of our bus which was sponsored by the Lansdowne Council of Churches. He did an excellent job.
"I was proud that our group was integrated. We were going to Washington to march peacefully for equal rights for all Americans now living, and those not yet born. But my elation was short-lived. I realized the March would be just the beginning. The heirs of 'Jim Crow' would slay many people before America really became the land of the free and the home of the brave.
"We passed many buses on the way to Washington. Every time we passed one, I peered through the window to see if it, too, was integrated. Most of them were, and I was happy.
"We arrived in Washington between nine and ten o'clock. We passed through what seemed to be a low-income Negro neighborhood. The people greeted us by waving their hands and smiling in a friendly manner.
"There was no traffic on the streets except the incoming buses. Can you visualize a city without traffic? It is an unusual sight.
"When Washington's Monument came into view -- surrounded by thousands of people of all racial groups standing, sitting, eating, marching with placards, singing "Freedom" and other appropriate songs in the morning sun -- I was reminded of Solomon's army waiting for the Egyptian soldiers to come over the hill.
"The bus parked on 23rd and C Streets. We alighted, got in line and headed for Washington's Monument. I cannot say we marched to the Monument because neither our group nor any of the other groups knew how to march, and, as I remembered the Goose Step, I was glad we never learned.
"Policemen or guards (use your own word) were close enough together to hold hands. They seemed very friendly.
"When we reached Washington's Monument, even though most of us were not hungry, we sat on the grass to eat our lunch (peanut butter sandwiches in most instances). These were our instructions, and we didn't want to break any rules.
"I don't remember just how we got them, but suddenly we were well-supplied with placards. We marched and sang a while and then headed -- I mean marched -- to Lincoln's Memorial.
"I had never seen over two hundred thousand people so tightly squeezed together before, except, maybe, on Broadway on New Year's Eve. In spite of the crowd, everyone was very considerate of everyone else.
"It seemed to me the majority of white people who marched were ministers and rabbis and their wives, professors and their wives, teachers of both sexes and students. I was especially glad to see students from the College of William and Mary with a placard.
"The program was very well-planned, and held my interest to the end. A. Philip Randolph did a remarkable job as Master of Ceremonies. Josephine Baker proved that she still loves America. The Reverend Dr. Eugene Carson Blake of Philadelphia put his finger on the reason why the United States still faces a racial crisis. The letter James Farmer wrote while in a Donaldsonville, La., jail was quite timely. Roy Wilkins, Walter Reuther and all the other speakers were very, very good, but when the Reverend Martin Luther King lined up those mountains from Maine to Georgia, I said to Libby, "King is my candidate for orator of the century." She agreed with me.
"I looked up -- the evening sun was shining on Lincoln's face. It seemed as if he were smiling at us.
"Bill Whitaker
August 28, 1963"
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