by nightfall

"Politics is an act of faith; you have to show some kind of confidence in the intellectual and moral capacity of the public."


~~  George McGovern







"I've always been suspicious of TV, I've always found music and video to be an unhappy marriage."


~~  Keith Richards





___________________________


-------------- [excerpt, JFK's Last Hundred Days] ---------


August 28, 1963


Following consultations with the Justice Department, the leaders agreed to


cancel acts of civil disobedience planned for the Capitol,


stage a shorter march between the Washington and Lincoln Memorials,


hold the event on a Wednesday to discourage participants from remaining in the city over the weekend,


limit speeches to seven minutes,


and advance the schedule so that most participants would leave by nightfall. 




---------- Kennedy gave the demonstration his blessing at a press conference, saying, "They [the marchers] are going to express their strong views.  I think it is in the great tradition [of our democracy]." 


Having decided to support the march, he now feared that a low turnout would enable opponents of his civil rights bill to argue that he had exaggerated the demand for it, and so he added, "I look forward to being there."




He later changed his mind about attending, probably because he feared his presence might inflame the South and connect him to any violence occurring during the demonstration. 


So instead of joining the 150 members of Congress at the Lincoln Memorial rally and witnessing the largest mass protest in American history, he asked one of the black White House employees, a doorman, Preston Bruce, to accompany him to the third-floor solarium, where they stood at an open window, too far away to see the crowd of a quarter million over the treetops, but close enough to hear the strains of the civil rights anthem, "We Shall Overcome." 


Gripping the windowsill so hard that his knuckles turned white, Kennedy said in a choked voice, "Oh, Bruce, I wish I were out there with them!"








He returned downstairs in time to see Dr. King deliver the only speech that a panel of distinguished historians would rank above his inaugural address when asked to choose the finest orations of the twentieth century. 


He watched King on the First Family's only television set, a thirteen-inch black-and-white portable with rabbit ears.




...[After seeing a replay of his 1960 debates with Nixon he had remarked, "We wouldn't have had a prayer without that gadget," a comment perfectly expressing his conflicted emotions toward television:  a respect for its power, and a disdain for a "gadget" that bored him so much that except for watching football games, he seldom turned it on....]






Today was the first time he had heard King deliver an entire speech.  After listening to his "I Have a Dream" litany, Kennedy turned to his aide Lee White and said, "Jesus Christ, that's a terrific speech.  He's damn good, isn't he?"  An hour later he welcomed the organizers of the march to the White House, telling King as he shook his hand, "I have a dream." 


King had dreamed of Mississippi "transformed into the oasis of freedom and justice," and America becoming a "beautiful symphony of brotherhood" where children were judged "by the content of their character."


Kennedy was dreaming of sixty-seven U.S. senators prepared to override a filibuster of his civil rights bill, and would support whatever furthered that dream, and oppose whatever threatened it.




By the time the leaders arrived at the White House, it was evident that their march had been an epic success. 


They had promised to bring 100,000 demonstrators to Washington, and more than twice that number had come. 


Although Kennedy had ordered the largest peacetime mobilization of armed forces in U.S. history, there had been no violence, the troops had stayed in their barracks, and Americans had witnessed an inspiring television spectacle that had advanced his bill more than weeks of backroom arm-twisting.





Roy Wilkins saw "relief written all over his face" as he praised the leaders for doing "a superb job of making your case". ...


------------------


{JFK's Last Hundred Days, by Thurston Clarke.  The Penguin Press, 2013.}








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