During the 1960s, Judith C. Russell, dean of the university libraries at UF, saw racism firsthand when her sister’s nurse was not allowed to attend a movie theater due to the color of her skin.
With the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington on Wednesday, Russell said she remembers being 18 years old in the crowd.
“People have been treated terribly, but it wasn’t a day of anger,” Russell said. “It wasn’t something dangerous or frightening.”
She said her experience listening to Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech is the most moving memory in her life. His speech wasn’t meant to help only blacks, she said. It was meant for anyone who suffered from social injustice.
“To see how he crafted words, how he was able to move people and (give) them a sense of necessity to act,” Russell said. “He changed the world. He changed the United States.”
Russell, who is not African-American, said she went to the march because of her belief in civil rights.
In remembrance of the march, associate professor of political science Sharon Wright Austin is putting together a panel titled “Emancipation?”
With the help of other professors and students at UF, Austin said the event serves to “honor the people who were involved in the march and to look at the different changes that have been made ever since.”
The panel will be held at Smathers Library, Room 1A, starting at 6 p.m. on Sept. 9, Austin said.
The group will also discuss the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation and the Trayvon Martin justice movement.
In the aftermath of George Zimmerman’s acquittal, Austin said people don’t understand why many African-Americans are angry with the justice system.
“They don’t understand it used to be a time when if a white person or any person commits a crime against a black person, that person was never punished,” she said. “And, so that’s what made people so angry.”
She said it’s important for young African-Americans to know their history.
“It helps to understand some of the things that are happening today,” Austin said.
A version of this story ran on page 1 on 8/26/2013 under the headline "1963 march resonates in Gainesville"
