BOOK/MEDIA REVIEWS

Abstract

Nobody Turn Me Around: A People's History of the 1963 March on Washington, by Charles Euchner. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2010, 226 pp. $26.95, hardcover.Professor Euchner presents a detailed and behind the scenes account of one of the most significant events of the twentieth century. How the March on Washington came to be and more importantly how the most memorable phrase associated with the March almost did not happen. The reader is provided with an in-depth inter/intra organizational review of how the March was organized and how the people, some celebrities and ordinary citizens, were impacted by the 1963 March on Washington and Dr. Martin L. King's Have A Dream speech. The views of Bayard Rustin and A. Philip Randolph, as the chief architects of the March, are particularly salient given their respective histories and activities prior to the March. The March was expected by some to turn into a violent mob roaming the streets of Washington; however, Rustin and Randolph made sure that the speakers did not agitate the marchers but gave them hope and reason. The capstone of the speeches was the passionate and most memorable speech ever delivered by Dr. King, Have A Dream. Dr. King had a monumental task of shoring up the nonviolent integrationist core of the movement while keeping the violent separatist forces from the extreme right and left restrained. This is a major strength of the work in that it gives an in-depth look at just how the organizers of the March worked together despite philosophical differences to achieve a successful March.Dr. King's speech was able to quiet the potentially violent storm, which was remarkable. Euchner gives the reader a rare glimpse of just how delicate a balance that had to be struck to make the March successful. At one point noting the fact that the Have A Dream speech may not have ever happen had Dr. King listened to two of his most distinguished advisors Wyatt Walker and Andrew Young. When King asked Walker and Young about using the phrase, have a Walker advised, Don't use the lines about I have a dream, trite, it's cliche. You've used it too many times already (p. 7). The level of detail concerning the violence of the era was not stressed sufficiently to allow the reader to fully understand the seriousness of the March. Seeing as though J. Edgar Hoover had at his disposal the entire FBI to work to discredit Dr. King and the entire civil rights movement, Dr. King and his staffs labor shown to beneficial to the success of the March.It is also quite unique using interviews with the ordinary citizens. One of the ordinary citizens interviewed was Simon Cloonan who makes some rather profound statements concerning the March and why those marching became involved. Cloonan felt the March was Communist-inspired and the marchers were involved merely for sex! The other position, which illustrated the level of diversity within the marchers, was shown by statement from a Black man named Joe Freeman revealing the tenacity many of the marchers displayed to be a part of this historical event. …