Reliving history

About 70 Annapolis Senior Activity Center members watched Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech on a big screen as they marked the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Aug 28.

They listened to the American promise of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” They listened to his call to “rise up,” to “never be satisfied,” “to struggle together,” and “to let freedom ring.”

They listened to his dream.

Becky Batta, director of the Annapolis Senior Activity Center, couldn’t thank those who participated in the march enough. She said if it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be sitting here together now.

She presented a yellow flower to each one of them in memory of the occasion and gave them the microphone to address their fellow seniors.

Six members who had some connection with the march spoke.

Juanita Collins was 10 years old when she attended the march. She talked about how exciting and exhilarating it was. She talked about how everyone was dressed up and how she loved hearing Mahalia Jackson sing. Now, 50 years later, she was proud to have been there and proud of all the changes that have taken place.

Pat Atherton held up a copy of Sunday’s Washington Post which published a picture that her late husband, James K.W. Atherton, a UPI photographer, took of the march. “Fifty years later, that picture still has resonance,” she said, noting that it has made all the history books. She told how her husband put his camera on a pole to take the picture and how someone from UPI asked him to move the pole a little. She also admitted that since the picture appeared in the Post, her phone has been ringing off the hook.

Nicholas Demos was a young lawyer who took a “long, long lunch break to walk down the hill” from where he worked. He said it was a special day and that he was electrified by the sheer numbers of people and their diversity. He said we’d made tremendous progress in the last 50 years and hoped we would continue to march for jobs and freedom into the future.

When Margaret “Maggi” Furr lived in Atlanta, Ga., she was great friends with Martin Luther King, Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King. She said they integrated a school together in Georgia, and she rode the bus with Dr. King from Atlanta to Washington, D.C.

Reuben Bowman was 15 years old when he attended the march. At the time he didn’t know what it meant, but now he does.

Betty Bowman said her son was three days old and they had just come out of the hospital when she attended the march. She said everybody got together and they were like one big, happy family.

After the speakers, clips of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. were shown on the big screen to the accompaniment of the song, “A Change is Gonna Come.”

Nate Martin, who teaches the Cultural Influences of Motown Music class at the center, ended the program with a celebration of Motown music. The music included such favorites as “Love Don’t Come Easy;” “Change;” “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman;” “Uptight (Everything’s Alright);” and “How Sweet It Is (To be Loved by You).”