David C. Ruffin
Washington, DC
I participated in the March on Washington in 1963. I was 18 and home on leave from the Air Force. My most enduring memory of the March was a conversation I had with an older man on the train ride from Pittsburgh to Washington the night before. He told me that when he was in the Army in the Jim Crow South during World War II, he witnessed the murder of another black soldier. He was powerless to do anything about it at that time, but the March finally gave him an opportunity to protest the killing.
I had been based in Texas where I was subjected to racial discrimination. The March was also means for me to stand up against racism. Below is my short remembrance of that time.
Stood-Up-at-March
