Ball State alumnus remembers March on Washington in 1963

Sixty years ago, a carload of students from then Ball State Teachers College set out for Washington, D.C.  It was August.  It was hot.  On August 28, 60 years ago today, they later realized their destination was history — face to face history.

James Wesley Williams, is one of the sons of the late Rev. J.C. Williams of Muncie.  Rev. Williams was active in the Civil Rights Movement in Muncie, and so was James.

James, his older brother Charles, and a handful of his Ball State classmates felt compelled to travel to Washington for the March on Washington, and to hear the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. give a speech at the Lincoln Memorial.

The speech was a call to peaceful action in civil rights for all Americans.  His address was carried on national radio and television. It would later be called the “I Have A Dream” speech – a speech historians say was one of the most powerful and inspirational in United States history.

James, and an estimated 250,000 others would gather at the Lincoln Memorial and all along the reflecting pool extending almost to the Washington Monument.

These were days long before smartphones, email, and the internet.  These were the days of fliers and pamphlets, newspapers made of paper, four radio networks and three TV networks.

These were also days of segregated public places in the south, separate water fountains, and wrenching poverty for Blacks, especially in southern states.  James and crew left Muncie to travel partly through south to reach Washington.  He says they were both excited and anxious when they left Muncie.

Stan Sollars is IPR’s Morning Edition host and a Senior Lecturer in Ball State’s Department of Media.  Contact him at [email protected].