An Unfulfilled Dream

"We want our freedom--and we want it now!"--John Lewis Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee leader

WHEN JOHN LEWIS issued that call for action in the summer of 1963 he echoed the crises of thousands of others who marched on Washington D.C. to protest for civil rights. Drawing close to onequarter million demonstrators to Washington that march for "jobs and freedom" was the collective battle cry of Americans who could no longer tolerate the glaring injustices of their society And when Martin Luther King told the crowd gathered at the Lincoln Memorial. "I have a dream "many hoped like him that that dream would be realized in their lifetime.

Yet, exactly 20 years later, civil rights supporters are preparing to march again. This summer's anniversary demonstration is in part a celebration of all that has been achieved over the past two decades, but it also serves as a searing reminder of the many ideals of the 60s that have been betrayed and of those yet to be achieved.

While the 1963 march raised the issues of integration and dignity, much of the focus was economic. Faced with 11 percent unemployment (double that of the white population) and unequal pay in the jobs they did hold. Blacks agitated for a share in the economic prosperity of the late 50s and early 60s. Despite some advances in school desegregation, voting rights and other civil liberties, Blacks by and large were shut out of worthwhile jobs. Labor unions, many of them discriminatory, were a source of contention rather than support for Black economic aspirations.

Today the "coalition of conscience" called for at the original march has taken shape. In Boston, a broad coalition of religious and political groups are organizing for the August 27 demonstration. The Massachusetts Council of Churches, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the National Organization of Women and the Central American Solidarity Association are among the groups actively organizing to send buses of marchers to Washington next weekend. And this time around, many labor groups have given to the march their support so conspicuously absent in 1963. AFL-CIO president Lane Kirkland is personally boosting the event with letters and phone calls, in addition to his organization's official endorsement.

Some attribute labor's change of heart to current economic conditions. Recently, overall unemployment neared the 11 percent mark that was reserved for Blacks 20 years ago, and Black unemployment is roughly double that figure. "The same concerns that were limited to Blacks in 1963 have now caught up to white folks." Minor Christian, president of a Washington restaurant and hotel workers union, told The Washington Post recently.

AND TO THE EXTENT that this newfound solidarity is the common bond of hardship, it cannot be seen as a triumph of the civil rights movement, but rather a failure of American society at large to take equality to heart. The poverty level now stands at 15 percent--the highest since 1965 when President Johnson launched the War on Poverty. Amid the relative prosperity of the early 60s, primarily Blacks were relegated to this lowest income strata. The "equalizing" twist of the 80s is that under Reagan-styled economic Darwinism. Americans are now willing to sacrifice white families as well in order to perpetuate the plusher segments of the economy. And with frustrated hopes for economic advancement, so too many of the legal gains of the civil rights movement seem to wither in the face of supply side and survival of the fittest. With a shrinking economic pie, hard fought affirmative action plans are flooding the courts.

Today's status quo is not what more than 200,000 marchers looked to almost 20 years ago, nor does the immediate future promise the "now" that Lewis like so many others, called for that day. Organizers are realistic about the difficulties ahead. "The march is just a beginning. In order for this to do any good, we'll have to continue beyond August 27," a local organizer said recently. But the anniversary march like its predecessor, can hope to stand as testimony that many Americans do in fact "Still Have a Dream."