Even among civil rights leaders there are rivalries and jealousies. They disagree among themselves. Some black leaders, such as Malcolm X , are impatient with the older organizations, which try to work peacefully through the courts and churches. And some groups want to fight with fists, weapons, and anger. But not Martin Luther King. He vows, "We are not going to stop until the walls of segregation are crushed. We've gone too far to turn back now."

For years the venerable civil rights activist A. Philip Randolph has talked of a freedom rally in the nation's capital. Perhaps it would bring the diverse black leaders together. Perhaps it would bring black and white people together. Perhaps it would influence Congress. President Kennedy has sent a civil rights bill to Congress. Will it be passed? A march would show Congress and the President the importance of the movement. Exactly one hundred years has passed since Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. Some white people are still telling blacks to wait and be patient. Martin Luther King speaks for them all: "We can't wait any longer. Now is the time."

Philip Randolph is seventy-four. If ever he is to have his march, it has to be soon. And so it is decided: on August 28, 1963, there will be a march for freedom in Washington. The marchers are going to demand passage of the civil rights bill; integration of schools by year's end; an end to job discrimination; and a job training program. Two thousand buses head for the capital, and twenty-one chartered trains . One man roller-skates from Chicago. An eighty-two year old man bicycles from Ohio. TV crews guess there are 250,000 people altogether, both black and white—the event is entirely integrated. It is a day filled with song, and hope, and goodwill.