March: Book Two

In the 2009 timeline, President Obama takes the oath of office on his inauguration day.

In June 1963, Lewis moves to Atlanta for his job as SNCC Chairperson. Civil rights leaders are invited to the White House to discuss the upcoming March on Washington and President Kennedy’s bill, which the SNCC doesn’t support because it has a sixth-grade education requirement. Lewis attends as a representative for SNCC, though he listens rather than speaks. President Kennedy tries to convince the leaders that the march will bring violence and chaos, but Dr. King insists that they’ll continue to uphold their nonviolent decorum. Lewis notes that another leader, Malcolm X, was not invited. He and Malcolm X differ on their opinions on the justification for violence.

On July 2nd, Lewis meets with the “Big Six” march organizers in New York: Himself, A. Philip Randolph, Dr. King, Roy Wilkins, Jim Farmer, and Whitney Young. Randolph had been trying to lead a March on Washington since the 1940s, to pressure President Roosevelt to enact fair hiring practices during the New Deal; the threat of that march succeeded in pressuring Roosevelt. Randolph wants Bayard Rustin to lead the march, but others disagree, citing his sexuality and association with the Communist Party.