Viterbo keynote speaker talks of ’63 march on D.C. during MLK remembrance

On the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., many Americans recall the “I have a dream” speech. 

It was given by King at a large civil rights march in Washington, D.C.

Many people, however, may think of that 1963 march as less controversial than it really was. 

Dr. Duchess Harris, the dept. chair of American Studies at Macalester College in St. Paul, spoke at a MLK celebration at Viterbo University on Monday night. Harris said there was a lot of resistance by whites to the protest. 

“More white Americans were opposed to the march on Washington than they have been to Black Lives Matter,” Harris said. “And so, we like to do revisionists history and think that Americans were supportive of this event when they actually were not.”

Harris, who been a Minneapolis commissioner on civil rights, added that the Washington march had been suggested in the 1940s but then-President Franklin Roosevelt opposed it.

Harris also talked about how much of the distrust of police by minorities results from differences in society.

“A lot of people don’t understand that policing happens differently in different communities,” she said. “If you live in an affluent community, often you see the police being helpful and supportive. And, if you live in an impoverished community, you might understand the police differently.”

Harris, whose grandmother was in the first group of 11 black women recruited to work at NASA, also believes America has made progress toward more social justice and less racism over the years.