Georgia Rep. John Lewis, who was the youngest speaker at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28 1963, and is now the last surviving speaker from that day, is universally renowned as an instrumental leader. He had been the founding member and chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.
"We want our freedom and we want it now," an impatient Lewis said at the podium hours before Dr. Martin Luther King gave his rousing "I Have a Dream" speech at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C 50 years ago.
As part of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington this weekend, Lewis spoke with the Washington Post, and reflected on the movement and its leader Martin Luther King.
"If people were committed to the philosophy and the discipline of nonviolence, committed to the idea of an integrated society, you could look beyond the question of race," discussing his weekly meetings at a Methodist church in the deep South where nonviolent activists would gather as part of the civil rights movement.
"The NAACP, the Urban League, the CORE people, the SNCC people, ministers, the churches, the black churches and many of the white churches were tied in to come, and they showed up in force, too," he continued.
"Sometimes I say that the movement during that time became almost a religious movement. People looked like they were going to church. They put on their best. The heard the call, they responded. It was like a great camp meeting," Lewis added.
"I tell you, Dr. King, he preached that day," Lewis said about the March on Washington. He knew he was preaching. He knew he was getting over. During the delivery of that speech, I think most people felt we were prepared and ready to march into Hell's fire. You had been lifted, you had been inspired... For that crowd to be interracial it sent a message that this movement was not just about African Americans. It was about all Americans. To see that presence of blacks and whites, I don't think people had seen that in America before."
To mark 50 years since that historical day, Americans from all over the country with divergent backgrounds traveled to D.C en masse this weekend. Bus trips and carshares were planned through social media to be a part of an anniversary of the seminal event, but also to reflect that the call for universal civil rights remains evermore needed.
On Friday, Lewis and actress Gabrielle Union joined the U.S. Postal Service in unveiling a stamp commemorating the 1963 March on Washington.
"This stamp, this beautiful stamp, is my hope. It inspires us all to renew our effort to do what we can to create a more perfect union," Lewis said.
The stamp carries an oil painted image of marchers carrying signs, which call for job and equal rights with the Washington Monument in the backdrop, the Associated Press reported.
Rep. Lewis also recently attended Comic Con International in San Diego where he signed copies of a graphic autobiography entitled "March," a graphic novel which depicts his involvement with the civil rights movement and the African-Americans' struggle toward equality.
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