Don Cash, president of the UFCW’s Minority Coalition a supporter of the Retail Justice Alliance, reflects on his experience at the 1963 March on Washington:
(The following is from religionnews.com)
Don Cash had graduated from high school in June 1963 and decided on the spur of the moment to join the March on Washington when he finished his work shift at a nearby warehouse. The Baptist layman is the president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union’s Minority Coalition and a board member of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the NAACP. He lives in Columbia, Md.
What is your most lasting memory of your participating in the march?
I was just overwhelmed. I saw old women — at the time they appeared to me to be old; they had to be in their 40s and 50s — sitting on the curb wiping their faces, with straw hats. It was very, very hot.
It was just people everywhere. I had never seen that many folks where it was mixed, where it was black and white people, a very diverse crowd. Nobody was laughing dancing or joking. You could tell that it was very, very serious.
I had never experienced all of these people marching and walking in unison and orderly, quietly, people hugging. I saw no incident. None.
Dr. King spoke of his dream for America. Where do you think we are as a society in fulfilling that dream?
I think we got a long ways to go but I do think that there’s been a lot of changes. I don’t think you’ll ever see what Martin Luther King dreamed in reality, in total. I think we’ll always have to strive for perfection.
The dream that he had is a perfect world and I think that in order to be perfect, you have to continue to work at it.
For additional information about various events commemorating the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, please visit http://www.thekingcenter.org/