March on Washington: Californian is out to fulfill a 1963 dream

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President Obama delivers his address on the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. (Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images)

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President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama walk into the Lincoln Memorial after speaking during the March on Washington commemoration. (Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images)

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President Obama greets Yolanda King, daughter of Martin Luther King III, who looks on alongside his wife, Andrea King. (Mark Wilson / Getty Images)

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President Obama shakes hands with former President Clinton during the commemoration of the March on Washington. (Mark Wilson / Getty Images)

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Rene Henry of Washington joins thousands of others during the commemoration of the March on Washington. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

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President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, along with former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, arrive during the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. (Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images)

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Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) speaks during the commemoration of the March on Washington. (Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press)

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Oprah Winfrey speaks during the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. (Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images)

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Spectators watch President Obama speak during the commemoration of the March on Washington. (Jim Lo Scalzo / EPA)

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Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) waves to the crowd during the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. (Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images)

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Thr Rev. Al Sharpton speaks at the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. spoke at the Lincoln Memorial. (Charles Dharapak / Associated Press)

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On Aug. 28, thousands of peopled attended the “Let Freedom Ring Commemoration and Call to Action” to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom at the Lincoln Memorial. (Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images)

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Actor Forest Whitaker speaks during the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. (Jewel Samad / AFP/Getty Images)

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Rev. Joseph Lowery, former president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, speaks at the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington at the Lincoln Memorial. (Charles Dharapak / Associated Press)

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Traditional Maori dancers from Destiny Church in New Zealand perform during the “Let Freedom Ring Commemoration and Call to Action” to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. (Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images)

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People cover themselves with rain ponchos in front of the Lincoln Memorial on the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. (Jewel Samad / AFP/Getty Images)

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Actor Jamie Foxx speaks during the “Let Freedom Ring Commemoration and Call to Action” to commemorate the March on Washington. (Jewel Samad / AFP/Getty Images)

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Marchers walk from Capitol Hill to the Lincoln Memorial during the “Let Freedom Ring Commemoration and Call to Action” honoring the 50th anniversary of the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, the landmark civil rights event where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I have a dream” speech. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

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John Mbugua and his son Giovanni Mbugua, 6, of San Jose, left, and Lavon Johnson and his son Mason Johnson, 2, of Fort Meade Md., greet one another while marching with thousands of others during a march honoring the 50th anniversary of the historic 1963 march on Washington. (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images)

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People put up with light rain near at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington to commemorate the 50th anniversary on the march on Washington, best remembered for King’s stirring vision of a United States free of inequality and prejudice, telecast live to a nation undergoing a phenomenal decade of soul-searching, crisis and change. (Jewel Samad / AFP/Getty Images)

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People take pictures during the “Let Freedom Ring” ceremony to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the march on Washington. (Mark Wilson / Getty Images)

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Emcees Soledad O’Brien, left, and Hill Harper open the “Let Freedom Ring” ceremony to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the march on Washington. (Shawn Thew / EPA)

By Richard Simon

Aug. 28, 2013 8:15 AM PT

WASHINGTON -- Some who came in 1963 were back. And then there were others, like Joyce Hamilton, who flew from California to attend the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington on Wednesday to fulfill a dream.

Hamilton, 65, of Oakland, and her husband Bill, 74, both black, were at the anniversary to fulfill not her dream as much as the one of her late grandmother, who became teary-eyed in 1963 when she couldn’t attend the march.

Hamilton, who was 15 in 1963, said she remembers watching Martin Luther King Jr. on TV give his “I have a dream” speech.

FULL COVERAGE: The March on Washington

“Everybody in the room was crying,” she recalled. “My grandmother kept saying, ‘I wish I had been there,’ tears running down her face.... We get a chance to fulfill her dream today.”

Crowds began lining up on the National Mall, in the drizzle and under heavy security, hours before President Obama was to speak from where King delivered the “I have a dream speech.”

Beth Olsen was at the march half a century ago -- at age 11. “I wanted to come back and see what it was like again,” she said.

VOICES: The March on Washington

The crowd was much smaller on Wednesday, said Olsen, now 61, a professor from Maryland.

“I never got this close,” she said, standing at the end of the reflecting pool. “I never saw the [Lincoln] Memorial. I saw everybody’s legs.”

Olsen, who is white, said the atmosphere on Wednesday was less tense than 50 years ago. “Even as a little kid I noticed I remember as the wall of people were walking down the streets to the mall, there was a young policeman.... I remember seeing his face and he looked scared and then he put his hand on his gun.”

Truth Thomas, 54, a writer from Maryland, was at the anniversary to “honor Dr. King”s legacy” and “witness the hope that hopefully will be reincarnated here today and ... be in the company of a lot of other people who share that hope.”

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