Democracy Now: 'Civil Rights Pioneer Gloria Richardson, 91, On How Women Were Silenced at 1963 March On Washington'

Source:Democracy Now- Gloria Richardson being interviewed by Amy Goodman.

Source:FreeState Now

"Fifty years ago this week, Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, A Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin and other civil rights leaders spoke at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. But where were the female civil rights activists? At the historic march, only one woman spoke for just more than a minute -- Daisy Bates of the NAACP. Today we are joined by civil rights pioneer Gloria Richardson, the co-founder of the Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee in Maryland, which fought to desegregate public institutions like schools and hospitals. While Richardson was on the program for the March on Washington, when she stood to speak she only had a chance to say hello before the microphone was seized." 

From Democracy Now 

I believe the main difference between Malcolm X and Dr. King had to do with different approaches. Dr. King’s approach was slower, because it involved more people, more negotiating and was completely non-violent. But at the end of the day, it was the only one that worked or could work. Otherwise, the members of the movement would’ve been portrayed as thugs, criminals and terrorists by the media. No serious politician, with serious power, would’ve worked with people seen as thugs and criminals. 

Malcolm X’s approach was more combative, that Africans have been in America for three-hundred years and should’ve gotten that freedom three-hundred years ago and “we are mad as hell and want our freedom now”. Which is certainly understandable, but it would’ve never worked, had the members of the movement used violence, even just to defend themselves.