We Shall Overcome

I went to see history reenacted and instead became a participant in something greater and all on the steps of Richmond's City Hall.

Arriving about 12:20, there were barely thirty people gathered, but it quickly grew to many, many more to hear actor Tony Cosby do Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.

At the original March on Washington, Mahalia Jackson had sung "How I Got Over" and today local singer Roz Christian did the honors. She started to sing and the mic immediately went out, which didn't matter given the strength and beauty of her voice.It wasn't long before people were clapping and testifying as she sang.

Then Cosby as MLK was introduced and he, too, discovered the lack of amplification. Shrugging it off, he launched into what is considered one of the top speeches of the 20th century.

It was mesmerizing to be standing in front of City Hall in the cold hearing such powerful words first delivered on a hot August day. If I'd had my camera with me, it would have been the faces of the children, black and white, staring enraptured at Cosby as he spoke, that I would have documented.

The crowd was respectfully silent (and 10th Street closed off to help the sound carry) except when urged by Cosby to clap, as in after the line, "America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked 'insufficient funds'."

Being one of the few white people in the audience, I appreciated MLK's line, "The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny..."

Most satisfyingly, this got a lot of applause and smiles in our direction. "We cannot walk alone," MLK said.

I was also struck by the line, "We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways or the hotels of the cities," not remembering how late such segregation was still the norm.

At the end of the speech, Cosby instructed the crowd to join him in singing "We Shall Overcome" as we walked away from the steps. All around me, I heard beautiful voices soaring in unison singing that gospel-based classic.

Feeling very caught up in the moment as I walked up 10th Street, an older black man fell into step with me. I smiled and commented about how emotional the whole experience had made me because I'd never heard the speech performed live before.

"I was at the March on Washington," he said simply. "I was eleven years old and I'll never forget a minute of it."

I felt like I was in the presence of greatness walking the streets of Richmond with this witness to history. We talked about the changes in race relations the two of us have seen in our lifetime.

I mentioned how I'd been struck by as basic a change since the 1963 speech as the hotel/motel restrictions. "So at least we've made some progress," I said.

"It's progress," he acknowledged. "But it's slow progress."

"We're a slow-moving people in some respects," I said.

"Not all of you," he said, about to cross the street. "It was my pleasure talking to you."

No, sir. It was my distinct honor to have spoken with you. It gave an even deeper meaning to what had already been a moving experience in the bitter cold on the steps of Richmond City Hall.

Overcoming, one small step at a time.