Newspaper Page Text
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Feature
Southern Cross, Page 9
Reflections on a momentous anniversary: the March on
Washington for Jobs and Freedom, August 28, 1963.
Charles Middleton stands outside Savannah’s Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum. Middleton par
ticipated in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom just weeks after graduating from
St. Pius X High School in Savannah. Photo by Ormonde E. Lewis.
By Ormonde E. Lewis
n August, James Middleton returned to
Savannah from the Washington, DC area to
attend the 50 th anniversary of his 1963 graduation
from St. Pius X High School. While here he also
reflected on another momentous anniversary: his
participation in the March on Washington for Jobs
and Freedom, August 28, 1963.
The March was a peaceful demonstration that
involved 200,000 people from all over the coun
try, the largest demonstration up to that time in
Washington, D.C. history. The National Catholic
Conference for Interracial Justice estimates that
more than 10,000 Catholics took part in the 1963
march. James Middleton has vivid memories of
the March, “It was a hot, humid day but we were
energized by what we were doing. We knew it was
a special event.”
This was not Middleton’s first experience with
civil rights demonstrations. He joined the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored
People (NAACP) youth council when he was in
ninth grade. He attended regular meetings that
taught young people how to demonstrate peaceful
ly against segregated public facilities. Middleton
was arrested many times in Savannah and also in
St. Augustine, Florida while participating in sit-
ins and marches. “My first arrest was at age 15.
We were picketing the store, Alex’s Super Duper,
on what was then West Broad Street. They would
not hire a Black person as a cashier, though most
of their business was Black,” said Middleton. He
spent the night in the Juvenile Detention Center
and was released to his parents, James Sr. and
Alma Middleton. “My parents were also involved
in the NAACP. They encouraged me to partici
pate,” Middleton said.
On the day of the 1963 March, Middleton
joined hundreds from the southeast who boarded
trains and busses to reach the nation’s capital.
In Savannah, the train left from Union Station, a
building now gone but at one time the centerpiece
of a bustling West Broad Street, now named for
the speaker at the March, Martin Luther King, Jr.
Today, a few yards from what was Union Station,
stands the Gilbert Civil Rights Museum.
“We packed a lunch but that was about all we
carried with us to Washington,” said Middleton.
They left Savannah around 6:30 P.M. August
27 and arrived in
Washington the morn
ing of the big event.
Middleton served as a
“marshal” at the March,
helping to keep the
groups moving the two
or three miles from the
railroad station to the
Mall. He was amazed at
the clarity of the sound
system that had been
erected. Water stations
and portable toilets dot
ted the landscape on
one of Washington’s
most humid days of the
year.
Catholic Archbishop
Patrick A. O’Boyle
of Washington gave
the invocation at the
ceremonies at the
Lincoln Memorial. Rev.
Dr. Benjamin Mays,
president of Morehouse
College and a Baptist
leader, gave the benedic
tion. The key speaker
was another Baptist min
ister, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose eloquent
speech moved Middleton: “After hearing Dr. King
I believed I could be all that I wanted to be.”
A few months prior to the March in 1963,
a young priest named Father J. Kevin Boland
spoke at Middleton’s graduation from St. Pius X
High School. The event was held at St. Benedict
Church because the Cathedral was not acces
sible to Black schools in 1963. Decades later Fr.
Boland became Bishop of Savannah. Now retired,
Bishop Emeritus Boland recently commented on
the March: “I know that there were priests from
Atlanta who went to the March, but to my knowl
edge there were none from Savannah.” Bishop
Boland recalls that for him the 60s were a learn
ing experience. “I came to the Deep South from
Ireland, a country that was all Caucasian. My
first parish was a white enclave in Augusta,” said
Bishop Boland. After hearing the speech of Dr.
King, Bishop Boland says he realized that it was a
“watershed event” in U.S. history, one that would
enrich the lives of both Blacks and Whites. “It was
truly a speech for the ages,” said Bishop Boland.
James Middleton returned to Savannah after
the March. He eventually entered the U.S. Army,
served in Viet Nam and later in the Pentagon’s
Motor Pool. After military service, he worked
for the District of Columbia’s Transit Authority
until his retirement. Though he’s now lived more
than 40 years in the Washington, DC area, he
returns home often to Savannah, a city whose cur
rent mayor, Edna Jackson, was one of his fellow
marchers in Washington, and whose fire chief,
Charles Middleton, is his brother. A lot has hap
pened in 50 years.
Ormonde E. Lewis is a Freelance Contributor to the
Southern Cross
U.S. President Barack Obama speaks from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial
August 28, during the ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the March
on Washington. (CNS photo/Jason Reed, Reuters)