March on Washington: In 1963, fears of 'cold war between races'

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Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. waves to supporters from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on the Mall in Washington, D.C. (AFP / AFP/Getty Images)

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Demonstrators link hands before the Lincoln Memorial, in a photo from the book “This Is the Day: The March on Washington.” (Estate of Leonard Freed - Magnum Photos / Getty Publications)

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Civil rights leaders pose in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. Pictured are, standing from left, director of the National Catholic Conference for Interracial Justice Matthew Ahmann, Rabbi Joachim Prinz, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee leader John Lewis, Protestant minister Eugene Carson Blake, Congress of Racial Equality leader Floyd McKissick, and labor union leader Walter Reuther; sitting from left, National Urban League executive director Whitney Young, an unidentified man, labor union leader A. Philip Randolph, civil rights figurehead Martin Luther King Jr., and National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People leader Roy Wilkins. (PhotoQuest / Getty Images)

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A demonstrator sounds off during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. (Leonard Freed / Getty Images)

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A shot of the march’s massive crowds, from the book “This Is the Day: The March on Washington.” (Estate of Leonard Freed - Magnum Photos / Getty Publications)

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The scene in front of the Lincoln Memorial, from the book “This Is the Day: The March on Washington.” (Estate of Leonard Freed - Magnum Photos / Getty Publications)

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Bayard Rustin points to a map showing the path of the March on Washington during a news conference at the New York City headquarters. Months before the march declaration galvanized a quarter-million people, Rustin was planning all the essential details to keep the crowd orderly and engaged. (Anonymous / Associated Press)

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This photograph was taken by famous photojournalist Leonard Freed as he documented the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. (Leonard Freed / Getty Images)

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Demonstrators seen in a photo from the book “This Is the Day: The March on Washington.” (Estate of Leonard Freed - Magnum Photos / Getty Publications)

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View of marchers as they walk along the National Mall during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in Washington, D.C. (PhotoQuest / Getty Images)

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Marchers stand hand-in-hand during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. (Leonard Freed / Getty Images)

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More than 200,000 civil rights participants of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on the Mall in Washington, D.C. (AFP/Getty Images)

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The aftermath of the discarded signs and displays from the March on Washington, as seen in the book “This Is the Day: The March on Washington.” (Estate of Leonard Freed - Magnum Photos / Getty Publications)

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A man looks over the National Mall in Washington, D.C. after the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. (Leonard Freed / Getty Images)

By Morgan Little

Aug. 28, 2013 5 AM PT

WASHINGTON -- Fifty years ago, more than 200,000 demonstrators took to the National Mall to join the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, an event that has since been heralded as a landmark moment in the civil rights movement.

But in the days before and after the event, skepticism abounded.

Leading up to the march, a nationwide Gallup poll found that Americans held an unfavorable view of the march, 63% to 22%.

“Anyone has the right to go to Washington, but it’s dangerous. No one can be sure that it won’t get out of hand.” So said an accountant from Erie, Pa., who was quoted in the Los Angeles Times on Aug. 27, 1963, the day before the march.

The sense that black Americans’ efforts were becoming counterproductive was given voice by a column by Morrie Ryskind that ran in The Times. It was ominously titled, “A Danger: Cold War Between Races.”

FULL COVERAGE: The March on Washington

“I have reported, I believe objectively, that the demonstrations, which began with vows of turning the other cheek and nonviolence, have turned into mobism and thus forfeited the sympathy of the average American,” he wrote.

His grim prognostication proved to be widely off the mark. A significant increase in security in Washington -- and a ban on liquor sales -- proved unnecessary. After the march, more concern was paid to the effect of summer humidity on the crowd than any sort of “mobism.”

That humidity took precedent over Martin Luther King Jr.’s legendary speech in the Associated Press’ story on the march, though later, on Sept. 9, 1963, a column by Max Freedman in The Times gave King his due.

Freedman heaped praise upon the late civil rights leader, a “supreme orator, a type so rare as almost to be forgotten in our age,” whose “voice will fill the land, and Americans of all races and creeds will respond.”

Click here for a collection of additional archival stories from The Times’ coverage of the march and its implications, or read through a compelling account of the march’s transformative effect on one participant’s life.