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A young engineer from Philadelphia, a graduate of Columbia University, said bluntly that he had no faith and didn't care whether God or Christ ever existed, but that he left his wife and children to take part because of the issue of justice.

A young dropout from Queens College, New York, also professed no religious faith. "I'm here," he said, "because I don't like to see people stepped on."

A member of the militant Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee from Fort Collins, Colorado, declared that he wants to be "where there's action.

"From Los Angeles came an actor-producer who said that his involvement built up until one morning he looked at his wife and children in his comfortable home and decided that he had to be in Alabama. "There comes a time," he said, "when benefit performances are not enough.

"The Rev. Robert G. Long was there as a representative of his synod and of the Presbytery of Chicago, Richard Jackman, a leader in a New York labor union local, called himself a "Presbyterian socialist" and saw the marchers as an "elect group." Lee G. David, general secretary of the National Baptist Deacons Convention of America, asserted that all segments of the country were represented.

A number of theological conservatives participated in the march. Among them were several Christian Reformed ministers, including the Rev. Gordon D. Negen of the Manhattan Christian Reformed Church of Harlem; the Rev. Raymond Opperwall of Ridgewood, New Jersey; and the Rev. James A. Bonnema of South Windsor, Connecticut. These men viewed participation as an expression of their Calvinist heritage.

Another evangelical and Calvinist was James White, a Negro middler at Westminster Theological Seminary. For him the march was an essential part of his theological outlook. Still another evangelical marcher was Bruce Crapuchette, a student at Fuller Theological Seminary, who came with a letter from Dr. David Hubbard, Fuller president.

From Seattle came the minister of music and the minister to students at the strongly evangelical University Presbyterian Church where Dr. Robert Munger is pastor. Both men said they gained "great respect for King's leadership.

"Present also were Missouri Synod Lutherans and representatives of the Lutheran Church in America and the American Lutheran Church. Their placard read: "Lutherans care because Christ cares."

Among Pentecostal participants was Dr. J. Harry Fought, pastor of Danforth Gospel Temple in Toronto. Fought, executive secretary of the newly formed Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, said he was present to let people know that the evangelical conscience is sensitive to the issue of human dignity.

The extent of evangelical involvement is believed to have been without precedent in the current civil rights movement. Never before have conservative Protestants identified themselves so demonstratively with the Negro struggle for liberty.

The unifying factor in the midst of the theological and social diversity was clearly the constitutional issue—protest against abridgement of the right to vote and peaceable assembly to petition the government for redress of grievances.

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January (Web-only) 2000, Vol. 44