1993 March on Washington for LGBTQ Equality
Thirty years ago this April I marched with the South Carolina delegation in the 1993 March on Washington. It was a life-changing experience not only for me but for hundreds of thousands of LGBTQ folks and their straight allies.
I loved that the commemorative poster for the event featured a quote from one of the Civil Rights movement leaders I most admired: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The framed poster has been hanging in every office of mine since then.
“Our freedom was not won a century ago, it is not won today,
but some small part of it is in our hands,
and we are no longer marching by ones and twos
but in legions of thousands,
convinced now it cannot be denied by human force.”
On this special holiday dedicated to you I say thank you for your example of nonviolent social justice change, your ultimate commitment to the possibilities of freedom for all, your powerful voice that spoke for those who could not speak for themselves. Rest in peace, Dr. King, but keep the living stirred up for equal justice for all people everywhere for as long we walk the earth.
**************************
Slava Ukraini. For the children.
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About Sheila Morris
Sheila Morris is a personal historian, essayist with humorist tendencies, lesbian activist, truth seeker and speaker in the tradition of other female Texas storytellers including her paternal grandmother.
In December, 2017, the University of South Carolina Press published her collection of first-person accounts of a few of the people primarily responsible for the development of LGBTQ organizations in South Carolina. Southern Perspectives on the Queer Movement: Committed to Home will resonate with everyone interested in LGBTQ history in the South during the tumultuous times from the AIDS pandemic to marriage equality.
She has published five nonfiction books including two memoirs, an essay compilation and two collections of her favorite blogs from I'll Call It Like I See It. Her first book, Deep in the Heart: A Memoir of Love and Longing received a Golden Crown Literary Society Award in 2008. Her writings have been included in various anthologies - most recently the 2017 Saints and Sinners Literary Magazine. Her latest book, Four Ticket Ride, was released in January, 2019.
She is a displaced Texan living in South Carolina with her wife Teresa Williams and their dogs Spike, Charly and Carl. She is also Naynay to her two granddaughters Ella and Molly James who light up her life for real. Born in rural Grimes County, Texas in 1946 her Texas roots still run wide and deep.
I'll Call It Like I See It 
He created a model for everyone to follow, both specifically in terms of race and in terms of other injustices as well. And you had your hand in making things better, too, Sheila!!!!
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Yes – such a wonderful model for all of us to follow! I’ve tried to follow. Onward.
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Thank you, Luanne. I really appreciate the comments. I have tried.
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I remember the anguished grief of 3rd grade teacher. She was an African American woman instructing mixed race students from a mixed neighborhood in Philadelphia. She was everything to us – part teacher, mother, nurse, nanny, and friend. Her heart was shattered as MLK, living his message by example, was everything to her. All that pride, all that hope shattered by a bigot who acted in the interests of the worst Americans.
“… but in some small part it is in all our hands…” And we must keep his dream alive.
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Yes – such a tragedy for someone committed to his dream…we must not let it languish…thanks for the story, Ann.
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The more one reads and knows about Dr.King the greater he becomes. The man had a social vision that encompassed class and race and poverty and violence and the history of the US combined with unmatchable moral and physical courage. An American original. A giant.
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Amen. Well said.
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