2 women who attended March on Washington describe experience 60 years later
"I was a part of something that was so big, that I knew I would remember it for the rest of my life. And I have."
PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- As the nation marks the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington, there are ceremonies happening across the country. But for some, the anniversary is very personal.
Virginia Hammond showed us a treasure she had long forgotten: a photo of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a thank you letter sent after his assassination.
That tragedy helped Hammond realize the magnitude of the one time she'd seen Dr. King: at the March on Washington
"That man was ahead of his time. That man had insight. That man had divine inspiration," she said.
At 23 years old she caught the bus at Broad and Spruce in Philadelphia to go to Washington, D.C. with friends.
Her husband, a police officer, helped with security.
"All these Black officers from Philadelphia got on the bus and went to D.C. They went one way. And I went with the NAACP," Hammond recalled.
"I was close enough to the platform to hear Dr. King and to see him," she said.
Already active in the fight for justice, she didn't think the march would be different from any of the others she'd attended.
But Clayola Brown, who was living in Philadelphia at the time, knew it would be special.
"I was a part of something that was so big, that I knew I would remember it for the rest of my life," Brown said. "And I have."
Brown was just 15 when she heard legendary radio host Georgie Woods talking about the upcoming March on Washington.
"I decided at 15 I was grown, I thought," she said.
So she bought a Greyhound bus ticket and traveled to D.C. without telling her family.
She was overwhelmed with emotion even before the speeches began.
"It was a sea of people," she said. "The magic of it was there were people of all colors. A large grouping of Black people in charge of some stuff."
Hearing speakers like A. Philip Randolph then. Brown is now the national president of the A. Philip Randolph Institute.
"The March" set her on a lifetime path of activism.
Hammond keeps that same "spirit" with her, "amazed" that she was a part of history.
"I do thank God for that experience," Hammond said.
Hammond hopes the younger generation draws inspiration from the March on Washington because, she says, so many of the injustices that were the subject of speeches on that day in 1963 are still injustices today.
