By Linn Washington, Jr. | SACOBSERVER.COM WIRE SERVICES

PHILADELPHIA (NNPA) - While hanging around Philadelphia's WDAS radio station in August 1963, Ed Bradley Jr. received an important, life-enriching assignment that, interestingly, had nothing to do with his dream of breaking into the broadcast business.

For newsman Ed Bradley, the "March was bigger than anything I'd ever experienced."

Bradley, the now-famous CBS-TV correspondent, received this assignment from then-WDAS luminary Georgie Woods.

DJ Georgie Woods, an avid Civil Rights Movement activist, asked Bradley to serve as a "bus captain" for one of the buses that Woods had chartered to take people to the Aug. 28, 1963, March on Washington. That Aug. 28 demonstration, dramatizing the need to extend equal rights and equal employment opportunities to African Americans, drew an integrated crowd of 250,000 to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington.

For Ed Bradley, the "March was bigger than anything I'd ever experienced."

That Aug. 28 demonstration is now widely recognized as a seminal event in American history, immortalized largely because of the stirring "I Have A Dream" speech delivered that day by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"There'd never been a demonstration like that in our lifetime. It was a feeling that we'd done something special; we were a part of something special," noted Bradley, who was studying to be an elementary school teacher at Cheyney State University in 1963.

"Dr. King's speech was so powerful and captivating that it drowned everything else out," Bradley recalled during an interview contained in a new book about that history-making civil rights march. His remembrances about the March on Washington are among nine personal recollections contained in "Like A Mighty Stream: The March On Washington" (Running Press) - a short yet richly detailed book presenting intriguing content and important context about that demonstration.

"Like A Mighty Stream" is also interesting because it provides in-depth examinations of a historic event from a bottom-up perspective instead of the traditional top-down presentation that focuses on the famous to the exclusion of others.

The author of "Like A Mighty Stream" is Patrik Henry Bass, an award-winning writer who is the book's editor for Essence magazine. Bass says he wrote "Like A Mighty Stream" in hopes that people would see "the Civil Rights Movement was triumphant and not just tragic." He says he chose to focus on the March on Washington in part because it was "a moment of triumph that moved the nation forward and had an international impact."

The March on Washington, for example, made an inestimable impression on America's political leaders, leading to the 1964 passage of the federal Civil Rights Act, a pivotal measure that prohibited discrimination in the use of public accommodations and discrimination in employment.

"This book is written to be an easy read," Bass said during a recent telephone interview. "This book presents a small slice of American history, and in that slice is a portrait of the best of who we are."

The release of Bass' book months ago coincides with this year's 40th anniversary of the March on Washington.

A commemoration of the 1963 March - with events planned to re-dramatize the demand of jobs and justice for all - was spearheaded by Martin Luther King III. Similar to the '63 March, the 2003 commemoration received scant advance coverage in the mainstream media.

"Most mainstream newspapers gave the 1963 March little coverage. They thought the March would be a flop," Bass noted. "The media had a disdain for the Civil Rights Movement."

U.S. Rep. John Lewis, one of the speakers at the '63 March, criticized post-march news coverage in a quote contained in Bass' book.

"Too many commentators and reporters softened and trivialized the hard edges of pain and suffering that brought about this day in the first place, virtually ignoring the hard issues that needed to be addressed," Lewis noted, also making an observation about mainstream media coverage following the historic 1995 Million Man March.

"Like A Mighty Stream" counters many of the myths that have evolved around the 1963 March. The March was about ending discrimination in employment and not just attaining equal rights.

"People forget about the labor part of the March," Bass says.

The roots of the 1963 march include the 1941 planned March on Washington that forced then-President Roosevelt to issue an executive order banning discrimination in defense industry jobs.

The architect of that planned 1941 march, Black labor leader A. Philip Randolph, was the architect of the 1963 March. Randolph, West Chester, Pa. native Bayard Rustin, and NAACP head Roy Wilkins were key players in the 1963 March.

"Dr. King had a low profile at the March until his speech," Bass said. "King deferred to" Randolph, Rustin and Wilkins.

Bass' book also tells little-known stories about the women behind the March, like Anna Arnold Hedgeman, whom Bass describes as instrumental in organizing the March.

Philadelphia had one of the largest contingents of participants at the 1963 March, Bass said.

He encouraged people to participate in activities to commemorate the march.

"Come on out and share some stories about the March," Bass said. "Bring some food … just like the marchers did in 1963."

This story comes special to the NNPA from the Philadelphia Tribune.