Rep John Lewis’ Speech at March on Washington

(audience clapping)

[ASA PHILIP RANDOLPH] I have
the pleasure to present

to this great audience, young
John Lewis, National Chairman,

Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee.

Brother John Lewis.

(audience clapping)

[JOHN LEWIS] We march today
for jobs and freedom.

But, we have nothing
to be proud of.

For hundred and thousand
of our brothers are not here.

For they're receiving
starvation wages,

or no wages at all.

While we stand here there
are sharecroppers

in the Delta of Mississippi,
who are out in the field

working for less than $3
a day, 12 hours a day.

While we stand here, there
are students in jail

on trumped-up charges.

Our brother James Farmer,
along with many others,

is also in jail.

We come here today
with a great sense of misgiving.

It is true that we support
the administration's

civil rights bill.

We support it
with great reservation, however.

Unless Title III is put in this
bill, there's nothing to protect

the young children,
and old women

who must face police dogs
and fire hoses in the South

while they engage
in peaceful demonstrations.

(audience clapping)

In its present form,
this bill will not protect

the citizens of Danville,
Virginia, who must live

in constant fear
of a police state.

It will not protect
the hundreds and thousands

of people that have been
arrested on trumped charges.

What about the three young men,
SNCC field secretaries

in Americus, Georgia,
who faced the death penalty

for engaging
in peaceful protests?

As it stands now, the voting
section of this bill will not

help the thousands
of black people

who want to vote.

It will not help
the citizens of Mississippi,

of Alabama and Jordan,
who are qualified to vote,

but lack of sixth-grade
education.

'One man,
one vote,'

is the African cry.

It is ours too.

It must be ours!

(audience clapping)

We must have legislation
that will protect

the Mississippi Sharecropper,
who is put off of his farm

because he dares
to register to vote.

We need a bill that will provide
for the homeless

and starving people
of this nation.

We need a bill that will ensure
the equality

of a maid who earn $5 a week
in a home of a family whose

total income of $100,000 a year.

We must have a good FEPC bill.

(audience clapping)

My friends, let's not forget
that we are involved

in a serious social revolution.

By and large,
American politics

is dominated by politicians
who build their career

on moral compromise
and ally themselves

with open forms
of political, economic,

and social exploitation.

(audience clapping)

They are exceptions, of course.

We salute those.

But, what political leader can
stand up and say, 'My party

is a party of principles?'

For the party of Kennedy
is also the party of Eastland.

(audience clapping)

The party of Javits is
also the party of Goldwater.

Where is our party?

Where is the political party
that will make it unnecessary

to march on Washington?

Where is the political party
that will make it unnecessary

to march in the streets
of Birmingham?

Where is the political party
that will protect

the citizens
of Albany, Georgia?

Do you know that
in Albany, Georgia,

nine of our leaders
have been indicted,

not by the Dixiecrats,
but by the federal government

for peaceful protest?

What did the federal government
do when Albany's deputy sheriff

beat attorney C.B. King
and left him half-dead?

What did
the federal government do

when local police official
kicked and assaulted

a pregnant wife of Slater King,
and she lost her baby?

To those who have said,
'Be patient and wait,'

we have long said
that we cannot be patient.

We do not want our
freedom gradually,

but we want to be free now!

(audience clapping)

We are tired.

we are tired
of being beaten by policemen.

We are tired of seeing our
people locked up in jail over

and over again.

And then you
holler,"Be patient".

How long can we be patient?

We want our freedom
and we want it now.

(audience clapping)

We do not want to go to jail.

But we will go to jail
if this is a prize we must pay

for love,

brotherhood, and true peace.

I appeal to all of you
to get in this great revolution

that is sweeping this nation.

Get in and stay in the streets
of every city, every village,

and hamlet of this nation
until true freedom comes,

until the revolution
of 1776 is complete.

We must get in this revolution
and complete the revolution.

For in the Delta in Mississippi,
in Southwest Georgia,

in the Black Belt of Alabama,
in Harlem, in Chicago,

Detroit, Philadelphia,
and all over this nation,

the black masses are on
the march for jobs and freedom.

(audience clapping)

They're talking
about slow down and stop.

We will not stop.

All of the forces of Eastland
Barnett, Wallace, and Thurmond

will not stop this revolution.

(audience clapping)

If we do not get meaningful
legislation

out of this Congress,

the time will come
when we will not confine

our marching to Washington.

We will march through the South:
through the streets of Jackson,

through the streets of Danville,
through the streets

of Cambridge, through
the street of Birmingham

(audience clapping)

But we will march with spirit
of love and with spirit

of dignity
that we have shown here today.

(audience clapping)

By the force of our demands our
determination, and our numbers,

we shall splinter the segregated
South into a thousand pieces,

and put them together
in the image of God

and democracy.

We must say, 'Wake up America!
Wake up! For we cannot stop,

and we will not,
and cannot be patient.

(audience clapping)