Try telling that to the teeming millions *sic[/] if Orthodox Jews in NYC…
I’m with the Gandhi faction here, with the short-order cooks unionizing as my backup.
It’s not like it was a wood carving of a rally in Munich in 1409, people. Those steps were crammed with people. Can’t we find more than one cite?
I’m gonna write the NAACP right now to ask.
Well, Orthodox Jews were never known for their fashion sense.
Okay, what this thread has produced is not a single reason for the white hats, but several reasons and several different hats. I’m going out on a limb to say that ALL of these hypotheses are true.
King’s nonviolent movement was strongly associated with Gandhi-ism and the use of the Gandhi cap. There’s no reason to believe it’s anything else.
Washington Post, February 2009:
A Turn in the South by V.S. Naipaul:
Let the Trumpet Sound: The Life of Martin Luther King Jr. by Stephen B. Oates:
Because they go so well with a Nehru jacket?
Odd that this should come up because every time I see the clip, first thing that comes to mind is to think of the guy standing right behind MLK as that ‘Pizza Delivery Guy’
All these answers are interesting. I see it’s been 12 years since the last post. But here is the Answer… According to Dr. King’s sister.
The men in white hats standing behind Dr. King during the March on Washington when he was delivering the I Have a Dream speech were members of the Baker’s Union. This, according to King’s sister Mrs. Christine King Farris, who mentions it in her book “Through It All.” She says they were helping to provide security that day. It’s estimated that 50k of the 200+K people who attended the March were members of a trade union. The official name of the march was The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
NM zombie
Pfui.
Thank you.
I had always assumed that it was kufi cap. I wonder how many white Americans, like me, thought that it was a show of solidarity between King and Islamists?
Maybe not just Bakers’ Union. (If you don’t wanna read, an organization of firefighters also worked wearing white hats and an armband with the letter “M.” The writer says a lot had day jobs as firefighters and policemen.)
I found another article from a subsequent march where members of the UAW were wearing white hats.
Yeah, but the question wasn’t about who wore white caps back then, it was about a specific group of people that stood behind Dr. King during that speech.
Thank you.
I am specifically referring to the men standing behind King while he was delivering the I Have a Dream Speech. They were members of the Baker’s Union. Those are Baker’s hats. And trust me, the fire and police men’s hats looked nothing like it.
You’re Welcome.
Can you provide a cite that shows the men in white hats behind Dr. King were part of the Bakers Union? From the text of the Mrs. Farris’s book I found a passing reference to the Bakers Union providing security, but I couldn’t find where it specifically mentioned that they and they alone were the chaps in question. As I noted in my link, firefighters also policemen also volunteered as marshals. I’ll let the weird comment about police and firefighter hats go, as it is at odds with the documented account.
Not trying to be a contrarian for the sake of being contrary, but to come down foursquare on thei specific identities of those specific gents this late in the game requires some extraordinary evidence, and I just didn’t see it in the source you provided.
So are you !
According to this article, they were fire fighters and police who had volunteered to be security:
I had no idea about the march, or anything about the civil rights movement at all. Things were moving quite well for me. I had a great job as a New York City fireman, and my wife worked in a bank.
I received a phone call from the Vulcans, an organization of black New York City firemen, to come to a meeting. I was hesitant and said to my wife, “I don’t want to get involved in any of this civil rights stuff.” She said, “Civil rights stuff? We have this nice apartment, you have your job, I have my job at the bank because of the civil rights stuff.”
So I went.
We got assigned to guard the Lincoln Memorial area. They gave us a badge, an armband and a white hat. Who the men were in the white hats is a little-known fact, even today. They were policemen and firefighters working as security people.
Missed the dit, but:
“We were surrounded by dignitaries, James Baldwin, a lot of movie stars. I was standing right behind Martin, but I was getting autographs from all the movie stars and writers because I recognized them and not him.”
Can’t quite put my finger on it, but there is something strangely familiar about that article. 
I hadn’t clicked on that link. Unless he’s lying, I think the answer is that they were firefighters and police who volunteered to do security.