After the MOW the Freedom Struggle continued : SNCC workers, left to right: Jennifer Lawson, Freddie Green Biddle and Karen Edmonds Spellman, Atlanta, Georgia, 1966.My summer of 1963 was full of excitement. After finishing my junior year at Howard University, I returned home to volunteer with the New Haven, CT. March on Washington, a coalition of churches, students, and NAACP members set up to recruit people to attend the March on Washington.
I was assigned to recruit delegates to ride the east coast ”Freedom Train” — one of a special fleet that was chartered by legendary A. Phillip Randolph of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters to bring thousands of delegates from across America to the March.
Early on August 28, 1963, the day of the March, I joined the 100 singing and clapping New Haven delegates who boarded the longest train I had ever seen—the “Freedom Train” As it pulled into the New Haven Railroad Station, it was filled with delegates of all ages who traveled, singing and praying, all the way from Boston to Washington D.C.’s Union Station.
Once we arrived in D.C., the New Haven delegation was joined by thousands of other Freedom Train passengers from the West and Central U.S.A. whose enthusiasm easily matched ours as we sang and chanted our way to 15th and Constitution Avenue and lined up on the street to become a part of the biggest gathering of Black Americans ever to demonstrate on the National Mall, intent on forging a new direction in the Freedom Struggle!
Freedom Demonstration in Washington, DC the aftermath of the MOW; Left to right: Belvie Rooks, Karen Edmonds Spellman and Sister Miriam, Washington, DC.But our mood changed as we marched to the Lincoln Memorial; we grew quiet and solemn, moving slowly and silently down Constitution Ave., holding our heads and signs high, knowing that we were making history!
At the Lincoln Memorial, we listened intently to several hours of inspiring music and speeches without tiring. John Lewis’ speech was my favorite! By the time the program ended, I was so pumped up that I don’t even remember walking back to Union Station and boarding the Freedom Train home. What I do recall is how we felt. We knew that the March on Washington intensified our struggle. We knew we were returning to our communities ready to organize and to make the American Dream a reality for Black people. The March gave us hope and promise. We knew our dream had begun, and nothing was going to stop us.
