But they all overran and, given the heat – 87F at noon – and humidity, the crowd’s mood began to wane. Rustin had limited the speakers to just five minutes each, and threatened to come on with a crook and haul them from the podium when their time was up.
#MARTIN LUTHER KING I HAVE A DREAM SPEECH FULL#
When he eventually walked to the podium, the typed final version was once more full of crossings out and scribbles. It was a hectic morning for King, paying a courtesy visit with other march leaders to politicians at the Capitol, but he still found time to fiddle with the speech. The crowd, marching to the National Mall Photograph: Arniesachs/mediapunch/REX/Shutterstock Josephine Baker made it over from France. Marlon Brando wandered around brandishing an electric cattle prod, a symbol of police brutality. The Washington Mall was awash with Hollywood celebrities, including Charlton Heston, Sidney Poitier, Sammy Davis Jr, Burt Lancaster, James Garner and Harry Belafonte.
Within a couple of hours, thousands were pouring through the stations every five minutes, while almost two buses a minute rolled into DC from across the country. The first official Freedom Train arrived at Washington’s Union station from Pittsburgh at 8.02am, records Charles Euchner in Nobody Turn Me Around. Examining first the paper and then the watch, he turned to the reporters and said: “Everything is right on schedule.” The piece of paper was blank.
Rustin, forever theatrical, took a round pocket watch from his trousers and some paper from his jacket. Reporters badgered Rustin about the ramifications for both the event and the movement if the crowd turned out to be smaller than anticipated. But when the morning came, that expectation did little to calm their nerves. From the reservations on coaches and trains alone, they guessed they should be at least close to that figure. The movement had high hopes for a large turnout and originally set a goal of 100,000. Political marches in Washington are now commonplace, but in 1963 attempting to stage a march of this size in that place was unprecedented. The “I have a dream” section was not in it.Ī few hours after King went to sleep, the march’s organiser, Bayard Rustin, wandered on to the Washington Mall, where the demonstration would take place later that day, with some of his assistants, to find security personnel and journalists outnumbering demonstrators. King went to sleep at about 4am, giving the text to his aides to print and distribute. He thought it looked as though King were writing poetry. One of his aides who went to King’s suite that night saw words crossed out three or four times. I would deliver four strong walls and he would use his God-given abilities to furnish the place so it felt like home.” King finished the outline at about midnight and then wrote a draft in longhand. “When it came to my speech drafts,” wrote Clarence Jones, who had already penned the first draft, “ often acted like an interior designer. King would call down and tell him what he wanted to say Walker would write something he hoped worked, then head up the stairs to present it to King. It’s cliche.’ Photograph: Tom Self/Birmingham News/Polaris/EyevineĪ few floors below King’s suite, Walker made himself available. King with his adviser Wyatt Walker, who urged: ‘Don’t use the lines about “I have a dream”.
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