By By ANDY HAMILTON / Niles Daily Star
NILES – Most people's vision of Dr. Martin Luther King's most famous speech is based on the grainy black and white television broadcast.
Alfred Holliday of Benton Harbor was witness to the March On Washington For Jobs and Freedom and Dr. King's "I Have A Dream" speech on Aug. 28, 1963. And he can recall the sights, sounds and emotions of that day in Washington, D.C. in great detail.
"What a day. It's a day I'd never forget," he said.
Holliday was speaking Monday during the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day 2007 Celebration at Lake Michigan College Bertrand Crossing Campus. He was a young man in school during the summer of 1963.
Holliday had a summer internship in Connecticut and he said he decided to make the trip to Washington on his own. His transportation seemed less than reliable, and he also said he didn't have the greatest confidence in the directions he was following until he ran into one of the biggest traffic jams he'd seen, packed with buses, trucks, vans, campers and more.
"If it had wheels, it was there," he said.
The day was "perfect," Holliday remembered. The temperature was 85 degrees, the humidity was 30 percent and a smooth 5 mph wind was blowing out of the south-southeast, "something like from Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Kentucky," he said. "It seemed as if the prevailing winds had something to do with the events of that day."
Law enforcement and government officials had anticipated a violent event, Holliday said, and they had soldiers and paratroopers ready and even had the sound system rigged so police officers could take control of the loud speakers if necessary.
"They anticipated violence … nothing ever resembling disorder occurred anywhere all day," Holliday said.
In fact, he said everyone he saw stepping off the church buses and out of cars were hugging and treating each other like family. And, he added, they were all singing "with furor, joy, heart and hope" as they made their way to the Lincoln Memorial and the surrounding streets and gardens.
"They came with smiling faces. It was a festive occasion and everybody was happy," Holliday said.
There was an anxiety among the crowd to see and hear Dr. King while others such as A. Philip Randolph took the stage, Holliday said. But, once he did, "King's speech could be heard for miles beyond the microphones."
Holliday also said the wind picked up from the south just at the time Dr. King began speaking and that the gusts ended when he left the stage. After the crowd had cleared Holliday said he ascended the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and sat looking over the pool.
"I thought to myself, 'What a day. What an historic day.'"
Celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a reminder, Holliday said, that people need to accept the "mantle" passed on by the civil rights leader.
"Inclusion and diversity equals unity," Holliday said. "We've got to learn to care about everybody and not just ourselves."