Martin Luther King, Jr., March On Washington: View From The Control Room | TV News Director Max A. Schindler
You Think What proudly presents a series of remembrances of a television news director’s career. Max A. Schindler worked for the NBC News Bureau in Washington, D.C. for many years. In this second article he describes directing news coverage of a gathering of mostly black civil rights activists in the nation’s capital. This time Max tells the reader what it was like to be present while capturing the televised images of a truly American historic event.
View From The Control Room Segment#2
by Max A. Schindler
The March on Washington
August 28, 1963
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was a large rally in support of equal rights for African Americans. There were somewhere between 200,000 to 300,000 people who participated. Approximately 75 to 80 percent were African Americans…the rest were white and other minorities. It was estimated over 500 cameramen, technicians and correspondents were there to cover this event for the networks and news media. I was there with my crew to cover the major speeches at the Lincoln Memorial. Other crews were in various locations all over the grounds at the Washington Monument, where the march was to begin, and along the mall in between the two memorials.
The leaders of the march were A. Philip Randolph, James Farmer, John Lewis, Martin Luther King, Jr., Roy Wilkins and Whitney Young. The event included musical performances by Marion Anderson, Joan Baez, Mahalia Jackson; Peter, Paul and Mary and Josh White. Charlton Heston representing many artists…Harry Belafonte, Marlon Brando, Ossie Davis, Sammy Davis, Jr., Diahann Carroll, Lena Horne, Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier…gave a speech on behalf of all of them.
The speech that will be long remembered, though, is the famous “I Have A Dream” speech by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Normally, when I am covering an event, as a director, I am listening to the words, and always thinking about what shots go best with the spoken words. However, this speech was different. While I was directing my portion of this event I found myself listening more intently to the moving words spoken by Rev. King. I know black Americans heard those words, however I also think he penetrated deep into the psyche of white America.
“Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation.”
“But one hundred years later, the Negro is still not free.”
“America has given the Negro a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds’.”
“But we refuse to believe the bank of justice is bankrupt.”
“This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.”
“We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence.”
“The Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people…We cannot walk alone.”
“I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.”
Martin Luther King then used the famous words “I Have A Dream” six times to describe the various dreams and hopes he had for all Americans …black and white.
He ended with the lyrics from a spiritual “Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.”
It is one of the most moving speeches I have ever heard… I must tell you about something that happened that moved me as much…maybe more.
There was an African American man standing near our mobile unit as this sea of people came down the mall toward the Lincoln Memorial. He was about 40 years old. He had a 5 or 6-year-old boy with him. I spoke to him. He said he had brought his son, on the bus from Richmond, to see this march, and to hear Rev. King. As this huge crowd came toward us, he picked up his son and placed him on his shoulders…then, as they all arrived at the Lincoln Memorial, over the noise of the crowd he said (and I have tried to remember it as best as I can)…
“My son…I want you to see and remember this for all of your life…I want you to see and remember what we did for you and for your generation…it’s too late for me…but it’s not too late for you…look at this and don’t ever forget it.”
As he was saying this there were tears streaming down his face.
I was moved by his love, moved by his hope for his son’s future. I wish I could see that child…now a man in his fifties…I would like to know how he turned out…doctor, lawyer, school teacher…My hope is he never forgot that day and remembers those words…I trust he fulfilled his father’s hopes and dreams for him…and he remembers all of those people who marched for equal rights in the summer of 1963.
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