Fifty years ago today--August 28, 1963--the Lincoln Memorial--I was there...

[First Speaker]

...I'll never forget it. My dad took me in to see the March, when I was ten...he thought it was something I should see, and I've always been grateful for it. What I remember were the generally good vibes--even a ten-year old could sense them--and the speeches. Especially Bayard Rustin's--and, to be honest, *at the time*, he impressed me just as much as King did--and, naturally, MLK's speech. I've tried to avoid watching TV clips of the speech, so as not to overwhelm my own memory...but what I remember is the whip in his voice, when he finished saying let freedom ring from New Hampshire and the Alleghenies, and turned to Stone Mountain, Georgia...and Selma, Alabama...places already consecrated by the Civil Rights movement. A great day, and I feel very lucky to have seen it.

[Bluzmann57]

1. Wow!

I am envious. I am sure this is a memory which you have passed on to your kids and grandchildren. Hopefully, they appreciate the magnitude of the event.

[enough]

2. I was there too. I was 19, came down on a bus from Philadelphia.

Yes, an unforgettable event. A couple of times when I've been in DC, I've tried to go back to the exact spot where I was standing most of the day. I've never found it for sure, but I can get to the memory of the feeling of the day very easily.

To me, the interesting thing now is that Martin Luther King's speech was a major part of the event, and a kind of climax, but it was not in any way the whole event. In memory, the whole event was even bigger than the speech. Of course at the time we did not know what was to follow.