I was still an anti-communist Stevensonian liberal in the summer of 1963 (who had only heard of Eugene V. Debs slightly, because I had, by that time, read a biographical novel about Clarence Darrow, by Irving Stone, which included some description of how Darrow had defended the unpopular "radical" Eugene V. Debs, at one of Debs's trials). So I did not suggest to my parents that we drive out to visit the Eugene V. Debs house/memorial site in Terre Haute, Indiana in 1963 (or at any time before my family moved back to New York City).
But by watching the corporate media network TV corporate news shows each weekday evening during the summer of 1963, I was able to follow, somewhat, what was then happening historically in the early 1960's Civil Rights Movement during this period; and what was happening politically in the USA, less than 6 months before JFK was eliminated in late November 1963, during the summer of 1963.
Early in the summer of 1963, Mississippi's NAACP leader, Medgar Evers, was assassinated in Mississippi. But because there didn't seem to be much of a visible movement of Civil Rights Movement supporters in 1963 in a city like Indianapolis (that only 40 years before was apparently controlled politically by KKK or pro-KKK folks and whose dominant daily newspaper, the Indianapolis Star, was then editorially opposed to supporting the 1960's Civil Rights Movement demonstrators), Medgar Evers's assassination didn't seem to impact much on daily life in Indianapolis; and the Indianapolis Star newspaper gave it much less front-page publicity on its front page than it had given the Civil Rights Movement protests for awhile in Birmingham, Alabama, after Bull Connor used police dogs and tear gas to break up peaceful civil rights demonstrations (when the photograph of dogs attacking Black demonstrators in Birmingham was spread around globally).
In the six weeks during the summer that were leading up to the late August 1963 March on Washington for Equality and Jobs, the then-right-wing extremist-owned Indianapolis Star printed a series of news articles or columns which created the impression among readers, including me at that time, that white people who decided to attend the Civil Rights Movement's March on Washington in late August 1963 would be placing themselves in a "dangerous situation," because such a large percentage of Washington, D.C.'s population in 1963 was "Negro;" and these "Negroes" might attack whites indiscriminately at such a gathering. And I can recall even mentioning to my older sister during the summer that the newspapers were saying it would be "dangerous" for whites to attend the late August 1963 March on Washington.
In retrospect, of course, the Indianapolis Star was probably acting as a "friendly media" tool of J.Edgar Hoover's FBI when it warned its readers that it would be "dangerous" for white supporters of the Civil Rights Movement to attend this march, in order to help J.Edgar Hoover and the FBI in their attempt to reduce the size of the planned rally, by scaring white supporters from attending the demonstration.
Because the late August 1963 March on Washington was broadcast live on at least one of the three national television networks (and perhaps broadcast live on the two other major national television networks) on the weekday in late August 1963 that it happened, even in a city like Indianapolis, I was able to hear the speeches, by Martin Luther King, Whitney Young, Roy Wilkins, John Lewis,Walter Reuther and some others, live, by watching my television screen for a few hours.
Again in retrospect, I think, at that time, I was still anti-communist liberal enough in my politics to be somewhat influenced by some of the FBI-inspired "friendly media" columnists in the Indianapolis Star who were then claiming that SNCC was "infiltrated" by "radicals" and "communists." So I may have then felt, to a slight degree, that the speech that John Lewis then read on behalf of SNCC at the 1963 rally was "too militant," while Martin Luther King's 1963 speech was what then reflected more my own political perspective at that time. It probably wasn't until the fall of 1965 that I actually began feeling that I was now closer to SNCC and CORE in my political beliefs than I was to Martin Luther King and the SCLC.
Ironically, although folk singers like Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary and the then-young Bob Dylan apparently performed from the podium at the August 1963 March on Washington rally, I cannot now recall seeing them perform during the few hours I watched the rally on my television set at that time. Maybe they each sang their songs earlier or later than when I had my television set; or maybe their singing then made no particular memorable impression on me that day (though I think that would have been unlikely since, although I had never yet heard of either Baez or Dylan in August 1963, I had previously seen Peter, Paul and Mary on some television variety shows and had heard their "Puff The Magic Dragon" hit record played on an Indianapolis radio station, despite not having yet heard their version of the "Blowin' In The Wind" song)?
Or perhaps, when these folk singers were performing at the August 1963 rally, the reporters on the television network whose broadcast I was watching were interviewing on TV one of the rally speakers or rally organizers or Hollywood celebrity attendees, whenever Joan Baez, Peter, Paul and Mary, Dylan or another folk singer sang a song at the rally and the sound of these folk singers singing could only be heard vaguely in the background by viewers of the particular network tv broadcast I was watching?
