KING AND THE DETROIT MARCH
Two months before the March on Washington, Dr. Martin Luther
King Jr.
led 125,000 people down Woodward.
The march, June 23, 1963, was the largest civil rights
demonstration in
the nation at that point. Speaking at Cobo Arena after the
march, King
delivered a more elaborate version of the "I have a
dream" speech he
gave in Washington two months later.
In Washington, King prefaced the "dream" portion
of the speech by
talking about going back to Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana
and the "slums and ghettos of our northern cities,
knowing that somehow
this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in
the valley
of despair."
In Detroit, King said: "So I go back to the South not
in despair. I go
back to the South, not with a feeling that we are caught in
a dark
dungeon that will never lead to a way out. I go back
believing that the
new day is coming."
At Cobo, King also added a reference to the highly
segregated city he
was visiting, saying: "I have a dream this afternoon
that one day right
here in Detroit, Negroes will be able to buy a house or rent
a house
anywhere that their money will carry them, they will be able
to get a
job."