Struggle for rights continues on 60th anniversary of March on Washington

The struggles for those who have been marginalized and discriminated against in this country still exist, some Long Islanders said.

So it's necessary, they said, for activists and others to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington. Organizers of this weekend's march, which takes place in the nation's capital on Saturday, have used the slogan, "It's not a commemoration, it's a continuation," of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s work. That's how many local leaders, clergy and academics interviewed by Newsday view the march.

Many said they were concerned by efforts in other parts of the country, particularly in the South, to eliminate the teaching of African American history and voter suppression efforts. They also were concerned about the rising incidents of hate speech directed at racial and religious minorities.

Long Island also has a history of segregated housing patterns, beginning with the post-World War II development of Levittown, where Black people were forbidden to own homes. In 2019, Newsday's Long Island Divided project, which explored the real estate industry's impact on housing discrimination, found some agents treated home-seeker testers differently based on race and ethnicity.

A few Long Islanders who attended the original March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Aug. 28, 1963, recalled the exhilaration of being among about a quarter of a million people on the National Mall, and listening to King give what came to be known as his "I Have A Dream" speech.

Denton L. Watson, a professor of civil rights in the American Studies Department at SUNY Old Westbury, said this weekend's march is "a continuation, in terms of the fact of the struggle that's still going on to fulfill the goals of the civil rights movement."

"We've made a lot of progress, but the 1965 Voting Rights Act has been gutted," he added.

Watson was referring to the U.S. Supreme Court's 2013 ruling in Shelby v. Holder that jurisdictions previously required to seek preclearance from the U.S. Department of Justice before they made new voting changes no longer needed to do so.

The Supreme Court's more recent decision striking down affirmative action in college admissions "was a real disaster," Watson said. "It's a throwback, almost an equivalent to the Plessy v. Ferguson decision" in which the nation's highest court ruled in 1896 that segregation laws did not violate the Constitution as long as facilities were "separate but equal."

"So, the civil rights struggle is still ongoing," said Watson, who served as a public relations official for the national NAACP in the 1980s.

More work to do in civil rights battles

Phoebe Ervin, 56, of New Hyde Park, said the struggles that many Blacks continue to face fueled her plan to attend Saturday's march. "I was born in Mississippi, so I've seen the water fountains that said [for] colored [only] and for whites [only]." She said she's attended other anniversary marches "because of the history of it."

 "When you go to a march, you meet people from around the country and hear their struggle," Ervin said. And learn their determination that "we're not going to take it anymore."

That the work of civil rights continues is seen in the challenge to voting rights and the attempt to eliminate an accurate exploration of the nation's history in its treatment of Black people, some Long Islanders said.

Florida has rejected an Advanced Placement African American Studies course from its public schools, and Arkansas said it would not give credit for students in its public schools taking the same course because it violates a state law that bans lessons that “indoctrinate students with ideologies.”

In 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower had to federalize the Arkansas National Guard and send in U.S. Army troops to protect the "Little Rock Nine," Black students who were attempting to integrate the all-white Little Rock Central High School following the Brown v Board of Education ruling in 1954 that struck down segregated schools.

"We have states that are trying to rewrite history," said Tracey A. Edwards, Long Island regional director of the NAACP and a member of the organization's national board.

"We have states that are still gerrymandering and attacking our voting rights … We have states that are attacking what is taught to our children," she added. "We have states that are trying to rewrite the history that actually occurred.

"It's a stark reminder," Edwards said, "that we have so much more work to do to protect the rights we achieved 60 years ago."

Edwards called the march a time to "regain, regroup and recommit."

Bishop R.W. Harris, prelate of Grace Cathedral International in Uniondale, was particularly concerned about what he called voter suppression efforts, particularly in the South.

"They're reverting back on the simple right to vote," Harris said, by "mandating requirements such as a photo ID … They're trying to eliminate the early voting. A lot of [Black people] work jobs that don't make it easy for us to show up on the actual day of voting, so early voting is important for our community."

Many pointed to legislation in Florida and Arkansas, for example, that have placed restrictions on how to address subjects such as slavery and other aspects of the Black experience.

"I grew up in a time when Black history was not even taught in schools at all," said Harris, 80. And to now see the "rollback … is very upsetting and very sad."

"We see what's going on in Florida trying to whitewash Black history and taking Black history out of schools," said the Rev. Sedgwick V. Easley, pastor of Union Baptist Church in Hempstead. "There's so much work to be done."

Concern over rise in hate crimes

Daniel Lloyd, founder of Minority Millennials, a Long Island nonprofit that works to educate and empower young people on civic engagement, leadership skills and social responsibility, said King's "I Have a Dream" speech contained a "prophetic message" that remains unfilled. 

Lloyd said he was concerned about the rise in what he called the "bravado of hatred and racism that we've seen in the past decade. Racism against African Americans, or the Jewish population," among others, he said.

According to preliminary figures, there were roughly 355 antisemitic, 15 anti-Catholic and 26 anti-Islamic hate crimes in the state last year. Across Long Island, hate crimes jumped nearly 40% in the past year, the data shows. That spike, which was largely fueled in Nassau County by antisemitic incidents, far exceeds the 20% increase in hate crimes reported statewide last year.

It's been 60 years since the March on Washington helped lead to gains in civil rights, voting rights and fair housing with new laws. But Lloyd predicted "we don't have 60 years to figure this out. We may not even have 10," he said, fearing a divided country is "at risk of no longer being a global power" and a "country without a middle class."

Despite the challenges, Carolyn Eisenberg, a history professor at Hofstra University, said 60 years had brought a lot of progress, something many others noted as well.

"The world today is really profoundly different than it was 60 years ago," Eisenberg said. "The [Barack] Obama presidency was unimaginable 60 years ago. Black women judges are all over the place … There's been tremendous change" since the 1963 march, which Eisenberg and Harris both attended.

Eisenberg was an 18-year-old from Teaneck, New Jersey, about to go to college that fall; and Harris was a 20-year-old from East Harlem. 

Harris said he was an "idealistic kid back in 1963," who had taken an NAACP bus to make the trip to D.C. "I was thrilled and excited about going down to the march."

Eisenberg and a friend drove to Washington. 

"We arrived about 5:30 in the morning. After we parked the car, God knows where, we then went to the Washington Monument, where people were gathering," she said.

Eisenberg said it was "unclear early that morning how big the march was going to be. As the sun comes up, you could see a huge number of buses pouring into the capital … At about 7:30 that morning, you were aware this was just an incredible happening; the lines of people arriving seemed to be absolutely endless."

To this day, what stands out for Eisenberg is the diversity and goodwill of the crowd.

"You had this enormous diversity of people coming from everywhere: old people, young people, white people, Black people … everybody was super friendly [with] just incredible openness and excitement."

Like the others who spoke to Newsday, Eisenberg said Saturday's march is a reminder of work still needed for the nation to become a more egalitarian society.

"The March on Washington, even today, is part of a broader movement that stands for the rights of all people, whatever their background. That struggle continues," Eisenberg said.

By Olivia Winslow

olivia.winslow@newsday.com@newsollie