The Power of the March—and After

The success of the March on Washington is now a part of American history. But its ramifying effects on the civil rights revolution will be long in unfolding. Certainly the moral impact of the March was incalculable. As one of its organizers put it, “Every Negro feels two feet taller now.”

Of the quarter of a million marchers, 200,000 were black. That means one out of every 100 American Negroes was in Washington on August 28. Looking out over the vast throng that took undisp...