In cooperation with the National Abolitionist Hall of Fame and Museum and the National Endowment for the Humanities, Oneida Public Library will show onThursday, April 28, at 7 p.m. a one-hour documentary on the 1963 civil-rights March on Washington, followed by refreshments and a discussion led by Max Smith.
The 2013 documentary film made for PBS, “The March,” tells the stories of participants in the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom against the backdrop of public drama, discord and threats of violence. The actual 1963 march was a watershed event in the Civil Rights Movement, bringing together a remarkable coalition of civil rights organizations, labor unions, movie stars and politicians to protest racial discrimination and economic disparities.
The march, attracting some 250,000 marchers, ended peacefully on the Washington Mall on August 28 with the famous “I Have a Dream” speech delivered by Martin Luther King, Jr., at the Lincoln Memorial. It is no coincidence that a year later Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The OPL is participating with NAHOF in programming surrounding the traveling exhibition Changing America: The Emancipation Proclamation 1863 and the March on Washington 1963, which will be on display at the NAHOF in Peterboro June 3-July 14, 2016. The exhibit and its surrounding activities were devised by the Smithsonian’s National Museums of American History and of African American History and the American Library Association through funding from the NEH.
For more information, stop by the Oneida Library, 220 Broad St., call (315) 363-3050 or consult the OPL web site at www.midyorklib.org/oneida