50 Years After the March on Washington, We Still Dream of Making a Difference

Fifty years ago today, Aug. 28, Martin Luther King took center stage at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and shared his dream with about 250,000 others.

It was peaceful, the largest demonstration in the nation’s capital and the first to receive major media attention.

The March on Washington serves as an ongoing lesson that each of us can make a difference in shaping our country’s democracy, said Dr. Pat Arneson, associate professor of communication and rhetorical studies. Arneson, who has studied the voices of people in the civil rights movement, realizes how easy it is to lose sight of the idea that our democracy is still under construction.

“We think this is a done deal, but it’s not; we can change society,” Arneson said.

Often, people become overwhelmed by the challenges that need to be overcome. “Do we throw up our arms or do we do something?” Arneson asked.

Research shows that there are multiple dimensions of meaning, including feeling, thinking and doing. Initially, we may be driven by feelings—oftentimes, angry ones, Arneson said. Then we might think, “I know this is wrong, and it needs to be changed.”

“We often don’t connect feeling and thinking with action because we’re so focused on ourselves and think there’s nothing we can do,” Arneson said.

But connecting feeling and thinking can generate motivation—a call to action and a fundamental piece of moral courage.

“Moral courage is the willingness to stand up in the face of resistance,” she said. “It’s the willingness to lose face for one’s moral principles, the willingness to be unpopular.”

Oftentimes, the challenge to shape democracy begins close to home and comes from face-to-face relationships.

“People can draw attention to issues when they are physically together, when they go to community meetings,” said Arneson. “You’re gathered together. We don’t gather together as much anymore and really talk about issues because people often rely on other channels for communication, like texting each other.”

Generally, moral courage starts with fundamental issues, such as education and housing, she said, but people don’t spend as much time now working in their communities. “We might think, ‘My billable rate is $600 an hour, and I spent two hours helping a friend, a neighbor or my community.’ We see our investment as a loss when we put everything in economic terms,” said Arneson. “There are good reasons to participate in our communities. When people feel a moral issue affects them personally, they reach out. And if a person’s scared, they just need to grab a friend. Courage often emerges in relationships with others.

“What we’re talking about is not necessarily aspiring to live ‘the good life,’ but how we can make a better life and a better world for ourselves and others. How are we constructing our democracy?”