Penn South Cooperators in the
U.S. Civil Rights Movement
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August 28, 2023 marked the 60th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a defining moment in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement.
In 2013, Penn South published a special newsletter called "We Marched for Freedom" celebrating the Penn South cooperators who were central to the planning and organizing of this historic event. The Deputy Director of the March, Bayard Rustin (1912-1987) was an original cooperator in Building 7B. Some members of the staff planning the event lived in Building 3, and Bayard's colleagues, Norman and Velma Hill, moved to the co-pop a few years later. Civil rights and labor leader A. Philip Randolph, who carried the vision of this march for 20 years, moved to Penn South in 1969. Walter Naegle, Rustin's life partner and author of this article, spoke to Penn South residents who attended the March about their experiences that day. Some of this history has been recounted in video interviews with the Penn South Archive Project, a project of Penn South Social Services. You can watch interviews here — psss.org/psaporalhistories — including those of Velma and Norman Hill, Millie Glaberman, and Walter Naegle, whose interviews mention the March on Washington. We urge you to visit the archive website and consider how you might contribute to the effort. The Archive Project is currently seeking volunteers to help conduct interviews, to organize memorabilia, and to tell their stories of life in Penn South. The 1963 March on Washington was a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights movement. The preceding months were among the most violent in the struggle, as white segregationists fought to defeat the movement through terror and repression. The massive peaceful gathering at the end of the summer demonstrated to the nation that the movement’s demands for equality and justice were a moral imperative. It was a turning point both in swaying popular opinion in favor of the civil rights agenda and in moving legislation through the U.S. Congress. "We Marched for Freedom" is a celebration of this event, and the people in Penn South who made it possible. |
Hundreds of thousands descended on Washington, D.C.'s, Lincoln Memorial Aug. 28, 1963.
US Government Photo, public domain. http://www.marines.mil/unit/mcascherrypoint/PublishingImages/ crowd%20photo%20march%20on%20washington.jpg |
We Marched for Freedom
Penn South Cooperators at Heart of Planning Historic 1963 March on Washington
By Walter Naegle
It was the largest gathering ever held in our nation’s capital at that time. An estimated 250,000 people joined together to demand legal equality and economic opportunity for all Americans, but especially for black Americans, whose segregation and unequal treatment were still enshrined in numerous laws. The protesters answered the call issued by a black-led coalition of civil rights organizations, trade unions, and religious groups during a summer when brutality in the Deep South had peaked. The marchers came to present their demands at the seat of federal power in the symbolic shadow of the president who had issued the Emancipation Proclamation a century before.
A summer of terror
The weeks leading up to the march saw the cold blooded murder of Mississippi NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers, the unleashing of attack dogs and powerful fire hoses on nonviolent demonstrators (many of whom were children), Governor George Wallace defying federal orders to desegregate the University of Alabama, and the imprisonment of four black teenagers in St. Augustine, Florida, for requesting service at a whites-only Woolworth’s lunch counter. The mounting tension led media outlets and government officials to issue dire predictions of violence and riots at the planned march on Washington. But with careful planning emanating from the march’s Harlem headquarters, and a coalition supporting realistic demands, the march united a diverse community to promote an agenda of equality of justice in an intelligent and forceful manner. The inspiring assembly, broadcast live by the major television networks, renewed hope that had been dimmed by the brutal weeks preceding it. The march would not have been possible without hundreds of committed local volunteers across the country. New Yorkers, and particularly some key figures living in Penn South, were a leading part of the effort.
The weeks leading up to the march saw the cold blooded murder of Mississippi NAACP field secretary Medgar Evers, the unleashing of attack dogs and powerful fire hoses on nonviolent demonstrators (many of whom were children), Governor George Wallace defying federal orders to desegregate the University of Alabama, and the imprisonment of four black teenagers in St. Augustine, Florida, for requesting service at a whites-only Woolworth’s lunch counter. The mounting tension led media outlets and government officials to issue dire predictions of violence and riots at the planned march on Washington. But with careful planning emanating from the march’s Harlem headquarters, and a coalition supporting realistic demands, the march united a diverse community to promote an agenda of equality of justice in an intelligent and forceful manner. The inspiring assembly, broadcast live by the major television networks, renewed hope that had been dimmed by the brutal weeks preceding it. The march would not have been possible without hundreds of committed local volunteers across the country. New Yorkers, and particularly some key figures living in Penn South, were a leading part of the effort.
Bayard Rustin, Asa Philip Randolph, and Dr. John Morsell holding a press conference about the March on Washington from the New York Headquarters.
Library of Congress (032.00.00) //www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2003671267/
Origins
A. Philip Randolph, the President of The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, had founded the March on Washington Movement in the early 1940s, calling for a massive demonstration to pressure President Franklin Roosevelt to ban racial discrimination in the defense industry. As the date for that march approached, Roosevelt summoned Randolph to the White House to demand that he cancel it. When Randolph refused to do so, the President issued Executive Order 8802 outlawing racial discrimination in the national defense industry. With a significant victory in hand, Randolph called off the march. Yet the idea of a mobilization of the masses to demonstrate for social justice remained in Randolph’s strategic playbook.
Plans for the 1963 march began when Bayard Rustin, Norman Hill, and Tom Kahn, penned a memorandum at Randolph’s request calling for a demonstration both to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and to demand the fulfillment of the nation’s promise of freedom and equality. Rustin, an original Penn South cooperator, had decades of activism behind him and had worked closely with Randolph in the past. Hill and Kahn, who moved into Penn South following the march, were young democratic socialists who had helped Rustin organize earlier demonstrations.
Preparations began in earnest when the march was embraced by the six leading civil rights organizations – the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC); the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE); the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); the Negro American Labor Council (NALC); the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); and the National Urban League.
A. Philip Randolph, the President of The Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, had founded the March on Washington Movement in the early 1940s, calling for a massive demonstration to pressure President Franklin Roosevelt to ban racial discrimination in the defense industry. As the date for that march approached, Roosevelt summoned Randolph to the White House to demand that he cancel it. When Randolph refused to do so, the President issued Executive Order 8802 outlawing racial discrimination in the national defense industry. With a significant victory in hand, Randolph called off the march. Yet the idea of a mobilization of the masses to demonstrate for social justice remained in Randolph’s strategic playbook.
Plans for the 1963 march began when Bayard Rustin, Norman Hill, and Tom Kahn, penned a memorandum at Randolph’s request calling for a demonstration both to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and to demand the fulfillment of the nation’s promise of freedom and equality. Rustin, an original Penn South cooperator, had decades of activism behind him and had worked closely with Randolph in the past. Hill and Kahn, who moved into Penn South following the march, were young democratic socialists who had helped Rustin organize earlier demonstrations.
Preparations began in earnest when the march was embraced by the six leading civil rights organizations – the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC); the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE); the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); the Negro American Labor Council (NALC); the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC); and the National Urban League.
Bayard Rustin (left) Deputy Director, and Cleveland Robinson, Administrative Director, of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Photo by New York World-Telegram and the Sun staff photographer: Fernandez, Orlando. Library of Congress: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3c33369, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1305652
Planning for the March
A national headquarters for the march opened at 170 West 130th Street in Harlem. Randolph, the President of the NALC, was named Director, and he appointed his long time associate, Rustin, as Deputy Director. As an openly gay man with radical politics, Rustin was a controversial choice to some. But his brilliant organizing ability and experience made him the perfect person for the task.
Norman Hill was granted leave from his staff position at CORE to help organize the demonstration, and he traveled the country assisting labor unions, church groups, fraternal organizations, chapters of civil rights organizations, and community organizations. As a liaison between the national office and local groups, he strengthened the sense of unity and coalition that was needed to mount a focused and united campaign.
Tom Kahn became Rustin’s Chief Assistant and helped to draft the organizing manuals used nationally by local organizations as well as numerous press releases.
Another young Penn South cooperator, Rachelle Horowitz, joined the staff as Transportation Director. Her initial objection, “I couldn’t drive, let alone be a transportation director,” was outweighed by her “compulsive” attention to detail, a quality Rustin saw as key to coordinating the caravans of buses and trains that would bring the demonstrators to Washington. Horowitz had worked with Rustin for about seven years, and had helped to organize the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom (1957) and the two Youth Marches for Integrated Schools (1958, 1959). She has vivid memories of that summer as a “kid” sharing her apartment with co-workers from the march office. Eleanor Holmes and Joyce Ladner, as well as Joyce’s sister, Dorie, then with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) bunked with Rachelle at Penn South during the weeks leading up to the march, and their work together forged a lifelong friendship. (Joyce Ladner later became President of Howard University, and Eleanor Holmes Norton is now Washington D.C.’s representative in Congress.) After working long days at the national office and often attending evening meetings in Rustin’s apartment, Rachelle would sometimes return home to the serenades of Bob Dylan, who was courting Dorie. While Dylan was still relatively unknown outside of the folk-music world, the cover of his song “Blowing in the Wind” by Peter, Paul and Mary nearly topped the charts that summer, and became an anthem of the movement. The march featured folk music performances by Dylan, Peter Paul & Mary, Odetta, Josh White, and Joan Baez.
As word of the demonstration spread, support and enthusiasm grew. The sponsors of the march, the civil rights groups known as the “Big 6”, were expanded to include labor and religious leaders eager to lend their voices to the cause of racial and economic uplift. Walter Reuther, President of the United Automobile Workers, Rabbi Joachim Prinz, President of the American Jewish Congress, Dr. Eugene Carson Blake, representing the National Council of Churches, and Mathew Ahmann, Executive Director of the National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice, rallied their constituents to stand with them at the Lincoln Memorial.
A national headquarters for the march opened at 170 West 130th Street in Harlem. Randolph, the President of the NALC, was named Director, and he appointed his long time associate, Rustin, as Deputy Director. As an openly gay man with radical politics, Rustin was a controversial choice to some. But his brilliant organizing ability and experience made him the perfect person for the task.
Norman Hill was granted leave from his staff position at CORE to help organize the demonstration, and he traveled the country assisting labor unions, church groups, fraternal organizations, chapters of civil rights organizations, and community organizations. As a liaison between the national office and local groups, he strengthened the sense of unity and coalition that was needed to mount a focused and united campaign.
Tom Kahn became Rustin’s Chief Assistant and helped to draft the organizing manuals used nationally by local organizations as well as numerous press releases.
Another young Penn South cooperator, Rachelle Horowitz, joined the staff as Transportation Director. Her initial objection, “I couldn’t drive, let alone be a transportation director,” was outweighed by her “compulsive” attention to detail, a quality Rustin saw as key to coordinating the caravans of buses and trains that would bring the demonstrators to Washington. Horowitz had worked with Rustin for about seven years, and had helped to organize the Prayer Pilgrimage for Freedom (1957) and the two Youth Marches for Integrated Schools (1958, 1959). She has vivid memories of that summer as a “kid” sharing her apartment with co-workers from the march office. Eleanor Holmes and Joyce Ladner, as well as Joyce’s sister, Dorie, then with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) bunked with Rachelle at Penn South during the weeks leading up to the march, and their work together forged a lifelong friendship. (Joyce Ladner later became President of Howard University, and Eleanor Holmes Norton is now Washington D.C.’s representative in Congress.) After working long days at the national office and often attending evening meetings in Rustin’s apartment, Rachelle would sometimes return home to the serenades of Bob Dylan, who was courting Dorie. While Dylan was still relatively unknown outside of the folk-music world, the cover of his song “Blowing in the Wind” by Peter, Paul and Mary nearly topped the charts that summer, and became an anthem of the movement. The march featured folk music performances by Dylan, Peter Paul & Mary, Odetta, Josh White, and Joan Baez.
As word of the demonstration spread, support and enthusiasm grew. The sponsors of the march, the civil rights groups known as the “Big 6”, were expanded to include labor and religious leaders eager to lend their voices to the cause of racial and economic uplift. Walter Reuther, President of the United Automobile Workers, Rabbi Joachim Prinz, President of the American Jewish Congress, Dr. Eugene Carson Blake, representing the National Council of Churches, and Mathew Ahmann, Executive Director of the National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice, rallied their constituents to stand with them at the Lincoln Memorial.
ILGWU members at March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Photo from Cornell University Kheel Center ILGWU Collection.
Although the AFL-CIO did not endorse the march, member unions were free to support the effort, and many did. Volunteers from the Service Employees International Union, the American Federation of Teachers, and the ILGWU, helped to publicize the event by printing and distributing flyers to their locals nationwide. The ILGWU’S newspaper, Justice, featured the official commemorative button on the cover of its August 15th issue. Inside, it reprinted excerpts from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s recent “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” wherein King addressed critics of his use of nonviolent civil disobedience. The union leadership urged its members to join the march effort and covered transportation costs for its New York City locals, chartering a train and eight buses for the pilgrimage to Washington.
The national office was a flurry of activity and a growing number of volunteers were needed to answer phones, type correspondence, print flyers, and send out thousands of letters. civilian marshals, many of whom were active or retired police officers, were being trained to address conflicts or emergencies efficiently and nonviolently. Planning for the march was an enormous undertaking, particularly in an era before there were personal computers, cell phones, or the Internet. The word had to be spread via postal mail, landline telephones and, if necessary, by telegram. The organizers also relied on media outlets, newspapers, radio, and television to get the message out. Frequent press conferences were held to keep the public apprised of progress. But not all of the publicity was encouraging. One notable example was cartoonist Bill Mauldin’s depiction of Washington, D.C., as a giant powder keg with lines of marchers approaching, presumably to ignite it. Coincidentally, Mauldin was a recipient of a Jefferson Award from the Council Against Intolerance in 1948, along with Bayard Rustin, chief organizer of the march.
The national office was a flurry of activity and a growing number of volunteers were needed to answer phones, type correspondence, print flyers, and send out thousands of letters. civilian marshals, many of whom were active or retired police officers, were being trained to address conflicts or emergencies efficiently and nonviolently. Planning for the march was an enormous undertaking, particularly in an era before there were personal computers, cell phones, or the Internet. The word had to be spread via postal mail, landline telephones and, if necessary, by telegram. The organizers also relied on media outlets, newspapers, radio, and television to get the message out. Frequent press conferences were held to keep the public apprised of progress. But not all of the publicity was encouraging. One notable example was cartoonist Bill Mauldin’s depiction of Washington, D.C., as a giant powder keg with lines of marchers approaching, presumably to ignite it. Coincidentally, Mauldin was a recipient of a Jefferson Award from the Council Against Intolerance in 1948, along with Bayard Rustin, chief organizer of the march.
Roy Wilkins (front, left) Executive Director of the NAACP, and A. Philip Randolph, Director of the NALC, leading the march.
Public domain photo from the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration: NAID: 542003 — https://catalog.archives.gov/id/542003
The March
The early morning hours of August 28th were quiet in the nation’s capital. Many businesses were shuttered for the day and numerous residents had left the city. Even on the mall, where organizers had predicted a hundred thousand demonstrators, few people were to be seen. The highways and railways leading to Washington, however, were another story.
In the early morning, Penn South cooperator Gerry Bichovsky and two friends boarded a bus chartered by Planned Parenthood. She remembers being “exhilarated at the sight of hundreds of buses on the New Jersey turnpike, all heading to Washington.” Interracial groups were singing and sharing stories, full of enthusiasm and anticipation. “As we entered the city people were lined up on the sidewalks, waving, smiling, and welcoming us. It was the most exciting feeling.”
As the dawn broke it became clear that the careful planning had paid off – at least in terms of numbers. What was still unknown was whether the march and rally would remain peaceful and disciplined, even as it delivered its forceful message.
The early morning hours of August 28th were quiet in the nation’s capital. Many businesses were shuttered for the day and numerous residents had left the city. Even on the mall, where organizers had predicted a hundred thousand demonstrators, few people were to be seen. The highways and railways leading to Washington, however, were another story.
In the early morning, Penn South cooperator Gerry Bichovsky and two friends boarded a bus chartered by Planned Parenthood. She remembers being “exhilarated at the sight of hundreds of buses on the New Jersey turnpike, all heading to Washington.” Interracial groups were singing and sharing stories, full of enthusiasm and anticipation. “As we entered the city people were lined up on the sidewalks, waving, smiling, and welcoming us. It was the most exciting feeling.”
As the dawn broke it became clear that the careful planning had paid off – at least in terms of numbers. What was still unknown was whether the march and rally would remain peaceful and disciplined, even as it delivered its forceful message.
Martin Luther King Jr. addresses the crowd gathered at the nation's capital.
National Park Service: www.nps.gov/malu • https://flickr.com/photos/42600860@N02/36233249121
Lincoln Memorial Program
Following an invocation by the Archbishop of Washington, A. Philip Randolph delivered the opening remarks. “Let the nation and the world know the meaning of our numbers. We are not a pressure group. We are not an organization or a group of organizations. We are not a mob. We are the advance guard of a massive moral revolution for jobs and freedom.”
“Randolph’s opening words set the tone,” recalls Norman Hill. “This was the first nonviolent mass action that united goals of jobs and freedom, of class and race. It was clear that we were taking the high moral ground.”
Remarks from the other leaders followed, with musical interludes by the Eva Jessye Choir, contralto Marian Anderson, and gospel great Mahalia Jackson. The leaders eloquently addressed the urgency of action necessary to address the racial and economic injustices in our democracy. When A. Philip Randolph introduced the last speaker of the day, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., describing him as “the moral leader of our nation,” the crowd roared its approval.
Although Dr. King’s speech is remembered most for its soaring “I have a dream” refrains, it also addressed the need for economic and social justice. “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality… We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and the Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.”
Following an invocation by the Archbishop of Washington, A. Philip Randolph delivered the opening remarks. “Let the nation and the world know the meaning of our numbers. We are not a pressure group. We are not an organization or a group of organizations. We are not a mob. We are the advance guard of a massive moral revolution for jobs and freedom.”
“Randolph’s opening words set the tone,” recalls Norman Hill. “This was the first nonviolent mass action that united goals of jobs and freedom, of class and race. It was clear that we were taking the high moral ground.”
Remarks from the other leaders followed, with musical interludes by the Eva Jessye Choir, contralto Marian Anderson, and gospel great Mahalia Jackson. The leaders eloquently addressed the urgency of action necessary to address the racial and economic injustices in our democracy. When A. Philip Randolph introduced the last speaker of the day, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., describing him as “the moral leader of our nation,” the crowd roared its approval.
Although Dr. King’s speech is remembered most for its soaring “I have a dream” refrains, it also addressed the need for economic and social justice. “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality… We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and the Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.”
Bayard Rustin speaking to the crowd at the March on Washington.
Betteman Archive
As the cheering and applause died down after Dr. King’s address, A. Philip Randolph introduced Bayard Rustin, who read the ten demands agreed upon by the leaders. He asked the crowd to register their approval following each demand. Velma Hill remembers “Bayard raising his long, elegant fingers to punctuate his reading of the March’s demands, which remain quite relevant today.” Randolph then led the crowd in reciting a pledge to return to their communities and continue the struggle.
As the crowd receded and a delegation of leaders prepared to depart for a meeting with President Kennedy, Bayard Rustin recalled approaching his mentor, A. Philip Randolph, who stood alone on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. “Your dream has come true,” Rustin told Randolph, for whom the march was two decades in the making. Tears were running down Randolph’s cheeks.
In the last years of his life, Randolph joined the ranks of Penn South cooperators as a resident of Building 6. He died there in 1979.
In 2013, President Obama awarded Rustin the Presidential Medal of Freedom (posthumously). Randolph was given the award by President Johnson in 1964.
The success of the march helped turn the tide of public opinion in support of federal legislation outlawing major forms of discrimination in schools, workplaces, public facilities, and in voting laws. Many in the country were ambivalent or unsure of their position on the demands of civil rights activists, and the peaceful gathering helped to demonstrate that the fight was both a moral necessity and an expression of the freedom found in the language of our founding documents. That said, there were many setbacks to come.
Less than three weeks after the march, the bombing of a black church in Birmingham by white supremacists took the lives of four young girls. But there was no turning back in a fight that had come so far. The movement won passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and set the stage for Johnson’s Great Society and War on Poverty programs.
Sixty years later, we can point to many achievements following the march, including great strides in promoting equality under the law. Many in the movement were equally committed to ending poverty and economic segregation, particularly among oppressed racial groups, and to achieving a more equitable economic order for all. These goals have been far more elusive.
As the crowd receded and a delegation of leaders prepared to depart for a meeting with President Kennedy, Bayard Rustin recalled approaching his mentor, A. Philip Randolph, who stood alone on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. “Your dream has come true,” Rustin told Randolph, for whom the march was two decades in the making. Tears were running down Randolph’s cheeks.
In the last years of his life, Randolph joined the ranks of Penn South cooperators as a resident of Building 6. He died there in 1979.
In 2013, President Obama awarded Rustin the Presidential Medal of Freedom (posthumously). Randolph was given the award by President Johnson in 1964.
The success of the march helped turn the tide of public opinion in support of federal legislation outlawing major forms of discrimination in schools, workplaces, public facilities, and in voting laws. Many in the country were ambivalent or unsure of their position on the demands of civil rights activists, and the peaceful gathering helped to demonstrate that the fight was both a moral necessity and an expression of the freedom found in the language of our founding documents. That said, there were many setbacks to come.
Less than three weeks after the march, the bombing of a black church in Birmingham by white supremacists took the lives of four young girls. But there was no turning back in a fight that had come so far. The movement won passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and set the stage for Johnson’s Great Society and War on Poverty programs.
Sixty years later, we can point to many achievements following the march, including great strides in promoting equality under the law. Many in the movement were equally committed to ending poverty and economic segregation, particularly among oppressed racial groups, and to achieving a more equitable economic order for all. These goals have been far more elusive.
Walter Naegle lives in Penn South, and was Bayard Rustin’s life parter from 1977 until Rustin’s death in 1987. He is the Executive Director of the Bayard Rustin Fund.
Note: Minor updates were made to this article that referenced events occurring in 2013 when the article was originally published.
Note: Minor updates were made to this article that referenced events occurring in 2013 when the article was originally published.
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Updates:
In 2013 when this article was first published to the Penn South co-op, Rustin's name was well known in social justice circles, but less known to the general public. In November of that year, President Barack Obama awarded Rustin a posthumous Presidential Medal of Freedom. That honor elevated Rustin's public profile considerably, spawning books and films, a number of which are about to be released. (See "Links to Additional Resources" below for details.) In 2016, Penn South Building 7 was listed on the State and National Registers of Historic Places as Rustin's longtime residence. Following this designation, in 2018, Penn South installed a plaque in Rustin's honor facing West 28th Street near the pathway leading to Building 7. |
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Links to Additional Resources
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Films
"Rustin," the first feature length film from Higher Ground Productions, the company headed by President and Mrs. Obama, will be released in theaters on November 3rd, then streaming on Netflix starting November 17th. The film focuses on the planning of the 1963 March. "Bayard & Me," a short documentary (16 min.) directed by Matt Wolf. Focuses on the personal relationship between Rustin and Naegle. Partially filmed at Penn South. "Brother Outsider, The Life of Bayard Rustin" (2003), directed by Nancy Kates and Bennett Singer. An award-winning documentary that premiered on PBS. |
Books
Unstoppable: How Bayard Rustin Organized the 1963 March on Washington by Michael G. Long, (Ages 6-9) More Than A Dream, The Radical March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom by Yohuru Williams and Michael G. Long, (Middle-high school) Bayard Rustin: A Legacy of Protest and Politics, edited by Michael G. Long. War By Other Means: The Pacifists of the Greatest Generation Who Revolutionized Resistance, by Daniel Akst. Climbing the Rough Side of the Mountain: The Extraordinary Story of Love, Civil Rights, and Labor Activism, by Norman Hill and Velma Murphy Hill. |