Fifty years ago today, I took the train to Washington,
D.C., with my then-husband Richard to participate in the most
important protest of our era. We were not part of a group, though
we knew many groups that were involved. We went on our own, as
citizens, who wanted to add our voices to others to demand a
society free of the racial barriers that denied equal rights to
Americans whose skin color was not white. We knew Bayard Rustin,
one of the organizers of the event, very well. Bayard is not well
known today, his picture seldom appears in history textbooks, yet
he was the great thinker and organizer behind the March on
Washington. He was a close friend of both Martin Luther King, Jr.,
and A. Philip Randolph, the legendary black labor leader. Bayard
has been unjustly neglected in history books because he was gay; he
was also a pacifist. He happened to be brilliant and a great
political strategist. Bayard was a strong believer in coalition
politics. He knew that blacks on their own would be unable to bring
about change, but blacks in alliance with organized labor had the
power to organize great events and make politicians take notice.

When we got to the Washington Monument, we found ourselves in a sea
of people of all races and all colors and all ages. Despite
warnings about potential violence (intended to keep people away),
the huge crowds were cheerful, exhilarated, and peaceable. There
was the distinct feeling of joy in the air—the joy that is
associated with breaking free of stale laws, oppressive customs,
and dead ideology.

We were, on the Mall, in a new world: a world
where men and women of every background stood together, arm in arm,
to seek a newer world. Massed together, with the Washington
monument at one end of the Mall and the Lincoln Monument, at the
other, we sensed the possibility and reality of that newer world.
It was not a theory. For that brief few hours in time, the theory
was reality, and we knew that change was coming, that it was
inevitable. The only question was not whether it would happen, but
when.

Truth? Much has changed, but not enough. Barack Obama is
President, but poverty among people of color remains scandalously
high and racial segregation is no longer treated as outrageous.

When the U.S. Department of Justice warned Louisiana that its
voucher program conflicted with desegregation mandates, it was
almost surprising that someone remembered that desegregation is a
good idea.

The hottest “reform” idea of our time—charter
schools—has intensified segregation, and neither the U.S.
government nor the Wall Street donors seem to care. Indeed, the
promoters of charters and vouchers have the temerity to dub
themselves as leaders of “the civil rights issue of our time.”

As if Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., would have supported a movement to
privatize public education! As if Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,
would have supported a movement that seeks to crush and ban
teachers’ unions! The so-called reformers forget that Dr. King was
closely allied with labor unions. They forget or maybe never knew
that when Dr. King was assassinated, he was in Memphis to help
underpaid sanitation workers (all of whom were black) organize into
a union to demand decent pay.

So, yes, let us remember the March on Washington. Let us not wait another fifty years to do so. Let us remember the vision of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Let us remember that the promise of that day remains unfilled. And let us
rededicate ourselves to the dream of a day when all children have
equal opportunity to learn and their families have good jobs and
homes and healthcare, and the means to take care of their
children.