Storyteller: Rev.
MacArthur Flournoy
Interviewee: Daryl Gerard Turner
Themes: authenticity, unity, hope
File ID: dde000887
00:39-00:51 (12 seconds) DT: I know that this was your first time participating
here at the March on Washington for the 50 th year celebration. So would you
actually consider this as a celebration?
00:53- 01:26 (33 seconds) MF: Definitely a celebration, a commemoration, it was a
time for me of also honest reflection, it was extremely emotional, it was a time to
get in touch with all the sacrifices that brought about yesterdayand at the same
time to think about what it meant to be, what it means to be a black gay man who
is father, who is a member of the clergy, who is clear about who I am and able to
walk in my authentic truth
01:29-01:39 (10 seconds) MF: and to imagine the many, many folks that didnt
have that opportunity before and would have lost their life and some did lose their
life simply because of who they were
01:40-01:46 (6 seconds) DT: What was the most iconic image of the March on
Washington for you?
01:47-02:36 (49 seconds) MF: Without a doubt it was the Lincoln Memorial. It is
the quintessential symbol in my mind of the civil rights movement. Some folks think
about the lynching trees, some folks think about the segregated busses, certainly
images of Rosa Parks come to mind. But the Lincoln Memorial brings to mind
images of Dr. King, Bayard Rustin, Mahalia Jackson, and many, many others and
most importantly the hundreds of thousands of folks that came from everywhere by
cars and busses. Everyday folks that came just to bear witness to something that I
saw in history books but I know, as my children would say, occurred in real life. And
that architecture
02:41-02:50 (9 seconds) MF: it took my breath away, because it brought to mind
that what happened 50 years ago was quite likely getting ready to happen again
and that you and I would experience it together.
09:02-09:27 (25 seconds) MF: Standing on that mall giving that speech to tens of
thousands of persons and saying how did the kid that came from south central Los
Angeles that slept on a back porch get there and it just makes me think through
faith, through faith and hope and trusting that if you hold on to your dreams, things
can happen.
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 2 min 24 seconds
Storyteller: Larry Rubin
Interviewee: Michelle Bova
Themes: change, justice
File ID: dde000894
00:08-00:12 (4 seconds) LR: My name is Larry Rubin. I am 71.
00:17-00:20 (3 seconds) LR: And we are on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
00:39- 00:47 (8 seconds) MB: So Larry, Ive read a little bit about your work and I
know that you were the field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee.
01:26- 01:49 (23 seconds) LR: I was brought up to believe that one way of being
human, of being fully human, is working for a better world. Working for social
justice. That this was part of justifying your existence on earth.
05:13-05:25 (12 seconds) LR: In my tradition, there is the tradition of tikkun olam,
repair of the world, and it probably relates to the first thing I said, that one of the
things you do as a human being, is fight for justice.
25:16-26:18 (2 seconds) MB: Can I ask you, where you at the 1963 March on
Washington?
26:18-26:19 (1 second) LR: Yes.
26:00- 26:07 (7 seconds) LR: It was the first time in my life that I was allowed to
feel that I was an American
26:15- 27:12 (57 seconds) LR: at the March on Washington, there were more
people than ever assembled for anything else in the history of the United States to
date. And that was America. I felt truly then, that we were representing the best of
America and that it was our country.
28:04-28:15 (11 seconds) LR: The March just gave me faith that things were
changeable. And no matter what we went through, it was worth making that
change.
31:15-31:35 (20 seconds) LR: The image that I take away from the March was a
quarter of a million people standing together saying that we want progress in this
nation, we want equality. And that is also the image of the civil rights movement
itself.
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 2 minutes 28 seconds