August 28, 1963. The end of a long, hot summer; the middle of a long, hard struggle. Almost a decade had passed since Rosa Parks refused to give her seat to a white woman on a Montgomery, Alabama bus. That seemingly small moment began and epitomized the Civil Rights Movement — of which the March on Washington was the apex. By the time the Rev. Martin Luther King stepped up to the podium, the 250,000 people gathered on the Mall in Washington (as the Staple Singers sang, "It's a long walk to D. C., but I know I'll make it some day") had heard speakers and singers from John Lewis to Bob Dylan. They knew to expect greatness from their brilliant, brave leader — they got history. A year later, after Kennedy's assassination made 1963 horrifyingly historic, after three young workers got murdered while registering black voters in Mississippi, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, and "separate but equal" finally ended. But that — and all the subsequent bloodshed, including King's own murder — was in the future. On August 28 on the Mall, there was no violence, no brutality; it was a day to let… read more »