Two months before the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, the 1963 Detroit Walk to Freedom was the largest civil rights demonstration in history at the time, organized by prominent religious and civil rights leaders Rev. C.L. Franklin and Rev. Albert Cleage, Jr. and others.
The march traveled down Woodward Avenue with at least 125,000 people in attendance, and it featured Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivering an early version of his renowned “I Have a Dream” speech at Cobo Arena. On Aug. 28 that same year, he would deliver the iconic speech at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.
Earlier this year, American Black Journal teamed up with BridgeDetroit for a virtual town hall commemorating the 60th anniversary of these two historic events in the Civil Rights Movement. Two Black church leaders were among the panelists. “American Black Journal” host Stephen Henderson talked with New Destiny Christian Fellowship’s Rev. Horace Sheffield III, CEO of the Detroit Association of Black Organizations (DABO), and Hopewell Church’s Senior Pastor, Rev. Kenneth Pierce II, 1st Vice President of the Detroit Branch NAACP.
They talk about Sheffield’s father, community and labor leader Horace Sheffield Jr., and his significant role in the 1963 Detroit Walk to Freedom. The younger Sheffield reflects on how exposure to the Civil Rights Movement influenced his own life as a social activist. Plus, Rev. Pierce talks about the next generation of African American civil rights leaders.
