One March Wanted to Overthrow Democracy, The Other to Finally Participate in It. Why the Civil Rights March on Washington Still Matters

In “Caste, The Origins of Our Discontents,” Isabelle Wilkerson argues how a human hierarchy has evolved in the United States, a concept of birthright, the temptation of entitlement, and a ranking of human value and usage. “There developed a caste system, based upon what people looked like, and internalized ranking, unspoken, unnamed, unacknowledged by everyday citizens even as they go about their lives adhering to it and acting upon it subconsciously to this day.” (1) This “ladder of humanity” was once again on display Jan. 6, when a white president encouraged a white mob to storm the Capitol and overthrow a democracy-unlike the Black Civil Rights March on Washington, DC, in 1963, to finally participate in a democracy that had been denied.

Context Is Everything
After years of slavery, lynching, segregation, and political and economic inequality, malnourished sharecroppers, women in worn shoes, eager students, trade unionists and radicals, and teachers and clerics came from all corners of the nation to the Lincoln Memorial to redeem the nation’s pledge that all citizens shall be free and equal. Washington, DC, braced for violence and rioting with some officials egging it on so they could crush the Civil Rights Movement. “Life Magazine” wrote: “Merely contemplating the possibilities for trouble and the logistics of the demonstration has given Washington officialdom its worst case of invasion jitters since the First Battle of Bull Run.” (2) The FBI warned of terrorists and “enemies of the state” and communist takeover. (3)

At the “Stop the Steal” Rally, marchers were not just scary men in masks with neo-Nazi tattoos brandishing Confederate flags but elderly men and women, teenagers, business owners, police officers, and elected officials: ordinary white Americans. White supremacy had become so normalized in the past four years, the Capitol police thought they knew them. In the form of Trumpism and American fascism, white supremacy fueled the election of this president (Donald Trump)-and allowed him to become even more popular despite his obvious failure to protect the health, safety, and prosperity of the American people. White supremacy and other antisocial and pathological political values motivated his followers in their effort to subvert democracy. (4)

Being Black in America
King had led the march from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial where 250,000 people listened to other civil rights leaders, entertainers, and politicians. At the time, it was the largest political demonstration in US history. There were 1,000 peace marshals for crowd control, but more so to protect the marchers from federal authorities. The Washington, DC, police forces had been mobilized to full capacity (6000), including reserve officers and deputized firefighters. The government mustered 2,000 men from the national guard and brought in 3,000 outside soldiers to join the 1,000 already stationed in the area. The Pentagon readied 19,000 troops in the suburbs. Agent provocateurs were ready to cut the power to the public address system. (5)

Trump emerged from the White House where he had been since the loss of an election. In recent weeks, he heavily promoted the rally that led directly to the assault on the Capitol, fueled by his conspiratorial fantasies. “Be there, will be wild!” (6) “We will never give up; we will never concede,” said Trump. Despite more inflammatory rhetoric and false claims by other speakers, many of the DC Police were told to go home and a request for the National Guard was denied. This, despite the FBI’s warnings of violence from White supremacists and far-right extremists and a “war in the Capitol.” (7) During the failed coup, Trump reported false claims about election fraud and expressed support for the rioters, adding that the opponents are “so bad and so evil.” (8)

Words and the Politics of White Privilege
Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his now famous “I Have a Dream” speech at the height of the Jobs and Civil Rights March on Washington, DC. Unlike Trump, King’s message resounded with the power of love and racial and economic equality through the discipline of nonviolence. “Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred,” said King, or “In the process of gaining our rightful place be guilty of wrongful deeds,” but “to lift our nation from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood,” and “to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.” (9) King’s speech and dream, consequently, was a table of brotherhood and sisterhood-politically, economically, and socially.

Trump, on the other hand, told followers to “fight,” and “fight like hell” to stop the certification of President-elect Joe Biden and America’s first African American Vice President-elect, Kamala Harris. He encouraged leaders “to get your people to fight. And if they don’t fight we have to primary the hell out of the ones that don’t fight.” (10) The ensuing insurrection had been years in the making, encouraging violence at rallies and agitating his followers with conspiratorial lies about the dangers of a multiethnic and multicultural democracy and instilling a sense of imminent doom, or stochastic terrorism. Black and brown people had desperately sounded the alarm about the existential threat Trump and his movement posed, but they were ignored.

Black Lives Matter, More Than Ever
White privilege is one of the primary ways through which white supremacy manifests itself daily in America. It was white privilege that did the work of normalizing the Trump regime. It was why so many of the country’s elites-including the military, judicial system, and mainstream news media and other opinion leaders-denied the obvious threat to the country’s democracy, safety, and security represented by Trumpism and his imminent coup attempt. (Just imagine if Barack Obama had done the same!) American exceptionalism and white mythology, which itself is a fantasy of and a result of its ability to distort reality, deems American fascism and a coup attempt to be impossible. They repeatedly scapegoat non-whites, the real victims in American society. (11)(12)

Something else: words really do matter-be they the blatant screed of a white supremacist or the dog whistle of a political leader only too happy to harness anger and divisiveness or loss of status for personal advantage. Whether President Trump is impeached and removed from office or not, his authoritarian, fascist and white supremacist movement will not stop their attacks against America’s multiracial and multicultural democracy. Clearly, America still has a lot of work to do. In this hour of need and distress for those who were killed in the Capitol Riot, the 1963 March on Washington, DC, should not only shame us but stir us into action. It also should be a lesson for white Americans, a reminder that Black lives do matter, now more than ever. (13)

(1)   Wilkerson, Isabel. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents. New York, New York: Random House, 2020., p. 22.
(2)   See here.
(3)   See here.
(4)   See here.
(5)   See here.
(6)   See here.
(7)   See here.
(8)   See here.
(9)   See here.
(10) See here.
(11) See here.
(12) See here.
(13) See here.