Local man remembers March on Washington
Kat Russell, Photojournalist
Kentucky New Era
August 28, 2013
http://www.kentuckynewera.com/news/article_58a5d7c2-104a-11e3-9f95-0019bb2963f4.html
As he made his way through the throngs of people standing in front of the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28, 1963, George Sholer didn’t fully grasp what he was witnessing.
All he knew was he had never seen so many people in his life. It wasn’t until years later, upon returning from Vietnam, that he came to realize the importance of his experience.
On Aug. 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., along with other civil rights leaders, led more than 200,000 Americans in a march on Washington, D.C., in what has been called the largest political protest in American history — The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
On that day, prominent civil rights activists stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and shared their demands for equality, their passion for human rights and their hopes for the future. King was among those who spoke and delivered his monumental “I have a Dream” speech.
Sholer just happened to be in D.C. on the same day, not for the march, but for a National 4-H Leadership conference. As it happened, he was making history of his own as one of the first African-American youths selected to attend the annual conference.
Born in Trigg County in 1947, Sholer was the seventh of 13 children. His father worked as a farm laborer and also did construction, and his mother cleaned houses. She died when he was 11 years old, and Sholer’s father had to work even harder to support his family. Sholer’s older siblings pitched in when they could.
“We weren’t rich, but we weren’t poor,” Sholer said. “We always had food.”
In 1962, according to the Park City Daily News, Trigg County High School integrated “without incident,” and 45 African-American students enrolled in the previously all-white school. Sholer was among those students.
It was during his high school years that Sholer became involved in the 4-H leadership program. He was 16 years old at the time, and he and some of the other students from the conference made their way to the rally — against the advice of the conference leaders — to see what was happening.
However, there were so many people crammed onto the National Mall, that Sholer couldn’t get close enough to the Lincoln Memorial to see the speakers or even hear their words clearly.
Instead he sat and talked to people and observed the march’s participants as they sat or stood on the lawn in the hot summer heat. Sholer remembered feeling disappointed he couldn’t penetrate the walls of people to get closer to the action.
For Sholer, the significance of that day didn’t hit him until years later when he returned to the United States after serving in Vietnam, where he was wounded and permanently disabled.
At that time, Sholer was stationed near Boston, and the nation had learned of King’s assassination, which threw more than 100 cities into riots.
Sholer was working as riot control, protecting a military installment, and he said it was then, when people were so angry and hateful, that the words of King’s speech really sunk in.
In particular, Sholer was struck by the last few lines: “When we allow freedom to ring — when we let it ring from every city and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last, free at last, great God almighty, we are free at last.’”
On the 50th anniversary of that speech, Sholer believes his country is still a long way from achieving King’s dream. He still sees a nation divided — politically, economically and racially.
“The dream hasn’t been fulfilled,” Sholer said. “There have been some accomplishments, but the struggle continues.”
Sholer went on to describe the constant power struggle between President Barack Obama and Congress, recent voter rights issues, the economic divide, discrimination in the workplace, and what he sees as a disregard for human rights as some of the country’s biggest problems.
Currently, Sholer, a self-proclaimed historian, does historical preservation work and advocates for education and economic equality. He believes that today’s youth lack respectable role models, and he condemns the pomp and show of these anniversary celebrations.
“I believe that these big celebrations make a mockery out of the real event,” he said. “People get up and make a big show, but then they go back home and sit in front of their TVs and do nothing. There needs to be more people actually taking action and not just talking about it.”
A father of four children and a grandfather five times over, Sholer still tells the story of his day at the march and how King’s dream has yet to come to fruition.
Remembering a quote that has stuck with him through the years, Sholer recited, “I can’t do everything, but I can do something. We all must act for the concern of all. We all can’t be Dr. Kings, but each individual can do something to make change.”
Reach Kat at 270-887-3241 or krussell@kentuckynewera.com.
All he knew was he had never seen so many people in his life. It wasn’t until years later, upon returning from Vietnam, that he came to realize the importance of his experience.
On Aug. 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., along with other civil rights leaders, led more than 200,000 Americans in a march on Washington, D.C., in what has been called the largest political protest in American history — The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
On that day, prominent civil rights activists stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and shared their demands for equality, their passion for human rights and their hopes for the future. King was among those who spoke and delivered his monumental “I have a Dream” speech.
Sholer just happened to be in D.C. on the same day, not for the march, but for a National 4-H Leadership conference. As it happened, he was making history of his own as one of the first African-American youths selected to attend the annual conference.
Born in Trigg County in 1947, Sholer was the seventh of 13 children. His father worked as a farm laborer and also did construction, and his mother cleaned houses. She died when he was 11 years old, and Sholer’s father had to work even harder to support his family. Sholer’s older siblings pitched in when they could.
“We weren’t rich, but we weren’t poor,” Sholer said. “We always had food.”
In 1962, according to the Park City Daily News, Trigg County High School integrated “without incident,” and 45 African-American students enrolled in the previously all-white school. Sholer was among those students.
It was during his high school years that Sholer became involved in the 4-H leadership program. He was 16 years old at the time, and he and some of the other students from the conference made their way to the rally — against the advice of the conference leaders — to see what was happening.
However, there were so many people crammed onto the National Mall, that Sholer couldn’t get close enough to the Lincoln Memorial to see the speakers or even hear their words clearly.
Instead he sat and talked to people and observed the march’s participants as they sat or stood on the lawn in the hot summer heat. Sholer remembered feeling disappointed he couldn’t penetrate the walls of people to get closer to the action.
For Sholer, the significance of that day didn’t hit him until years later when he returned to the United States after serving in Vietnam, where he was wounded and permanently disabled.
At that time, Sholer was stationed near Boston, and the nation had learned of King’s assassination, which threw more than 100 cities into riots.
Sholer was working as riot control, protecting a military installment, and he said it was then, when people were so angry and hateful, that the words of King’s speech really sunk in.
In particular, Sholer was struck by the last few lines: “When we allow freedom to ring — when we let it ring from every city and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last, free at last, great God almighty, we are free at last.’”
On the 50th anniversary of that speech, Sholer believes his country is still a long way from achieving King’s dream. He still sees a nation divided — politically, economically and racially.
“The dream hasn’t been fulfilled,” Sholer said. “There have been some accomplishments, but the struggle continues.”
Sholer went on to describe the constant power struggle between President Barack Obama and Congress, recent voter rights issues, the economic divide, discrimination in the workplace, and what he sees as a disregard for human rights as some of the country’s biggest problems.
Currently, Sholer, a self-proclaimed historian, does historical preservation work and advocates for education and economic equality. He believes that today’s youth lack respectable role models, and he condemns the pomp and show of these anniversary celebrations.
“I believe that these big celebrations make a mockery out of the real event,” he said. “People get up and make a big show, but then they go back home and sit in front of their TVs and do nothing. There needs to be more people actually taking action and not just talking about it.”
A father of four children and a grandfather five times over, Sholer still tells the story of his day at the march and how King’s dream has yet to come to fruition.
Remembering a quote that has stuck with him through the years, Sholer recited, “I can’t do everything, but I can do something. We all must act for the concern of all. We all can’t be Dr. Kings, but each individual can do something to make change.”
Reach Kat at 270-887-3241 or krussell@kentuckynewera.com.
