# Without looking it up, do you know of these two events? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 27, 2013, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293 "2013-08-27T13:54:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/101 "2013-08-28T16:11:13Z")
> [@DeweyDecibel](#): > > I’m still confused about the “March on Washington” name. Was this a known term before the anniversary coverage started? As I said above, I’m quite familiar with MLK and the Dream speech, and the march (lowercase m). I’ve read about it in multiple classes, and generally feel I have a decent knowledge of the civil rights movement. Yet I’ve never heard of it referred to as **The** March on Washington. I wasn’t aware any one march rose above the others to get the title of _The_. > > So, everyone else…was this a common descriptor until recently, or were you guessing because it’s the most famous march, or know due to the recent coverage? The official name of the event was the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, but was often shortened to just the March on Washington. The name (both the shorter and full name) were used on buttons and signs before and during the event. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/102 "2013-08-28T16:22:56Z")
46 year old male. I knew both. Because of the anniversary in the news it didn’t occur to me to think of a different march. But I am aware of the others too. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/103 "2013-08-28T16:25:13Z")
> [@DeweyDecibel](#): > > I’m still confused about the “March on Washington” name. Was this a known term before the anniversary coverage started? As I said above, I’m quite familiar with MLK and the Dream speech, and the march (lowercase m). I’ve read about it in multiple classes, and generally feel I have a decent knowledge of the civil rights movement. Yet I’ve never heard of it referred to as **The** March on Washington. I wasn’t aware any one march rose above the others to get the title of _The_. > > So, everyone else…was this a common descriptor until recently, or were you guessing because it’s the most famous march, or know due to the recent coverage? I am old enough to remember live TV coverage. It was definitely always called “The March on Washington.” Of course there were earlier marches & there have been later ones. Just not with that name. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/104 "2013-08-28T16:29:59Z")
Yes to both, and I’ve visited Harper’s Ferry, site of the whole sorry episode. I’m 66, with a public education and a BA (a minor in history, and a fascination with the wars of our country). ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/105 "2013-08-28T17:17:41Z")
Here’s a link to some great photos from the day, in at least one you can see a the name March of Washington for Jobs and Freedom (about halfway down): [http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/08/photo-diary-march-washington/68808/](http://www.theatlanticwire.com/politics/2013/08/photo-diary-march-washington/68808/) Also, here is a video of the speech: [MLK "I Have a Dream" VIDEO: Watch Martin Luther King Jr. deliver his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.](http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/08/28/mlk_i_have_a_dream_video_watch_martin_luther_king_jr_deliver_his_famous.html) ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/106 "2013-08-28T17:22:48Z")
Yes to both (though I wouldn’t have gotten all the details on John Brown, I do know the basics). 39 (my undergraduate major was history, fwiw) ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/107 "2013-08-28T18:18:26Z")
43 yo. 1. John Brown - some sort of black revolutionary, can’t remember exactly when. Civil War? Wasn’t he hung? (“They was right!”) 2. Which march on Washington? There have been so many, I assume there must have been a March on Washington ™ ® (all rights reserved). Was that the one where Canada came and burned our White House? ---
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/108 "2013-08-28T18:23:24Z")
> [@Northern\_Piper](#): > > having a wild-eyed, crazy-looking, gun and bible-quoting guy as your rep on your state day? > > I’d thought Kansas was pretty staid, sort of like Saskatchewan, just more so. I may have to re-think that… Kansas had its moments back in the day. Nowadays…well, Sam Brownback. ---
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/109 "2013-08-28T18:24:25Z")
> [@Katriona](#): > > Kansas had its moments back in the day. Nowadays…well, Sam Brownback. Oh, yeah, 45 years old; knew them both (raised in KS, but I didn’t realize that John Brown wasn’t more widely known - hell, Johnny-fucking-Cash played him in North and South!). ---
**Author:** ![GargoyleWB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gargoylewb/32/199_2.png) [@GargoyleWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GargoyleWB)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/110 "2013-08-28T18:26:31Z")
Timed out my edits…here’s the follow-up memory-check… 1. -edit- Looking it up, I see that I’ve conflated John Brown events with the Nat Turner rebellion, both of which I was aware of but were mashed together into a hazy single event in my memory. 1. -edit- Ah, so it’s the MLK march. I knew this event but it is honestly the first I’ve ever heard it titled with this particular “official” name, I usually see “Civil Rights March” or “MLK’s March” or monikers like that. ---
**Author:** ![AtomicDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ac91a4/32.png) [@AtomicDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AtomicDog)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/111 "2013-08-28T18:33:13Z")
Both. 58. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/112 "2013-08-28T18:52:15Z")
Mid-fifties. Knew the first one from “Flashman and the Angel of the Lord” (I get a lot of my history from historical fiction, alas.) And probably some ancient civics class. The second one, I guessed the march of veterans on Washington during the depression (which I now know was called the Bonus army, thanks to some previous posters.) And I dunno where I got that historical tidbit from – probably some Learning Channel documentary before they went all hillbilly reality show. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/113 "2013-08-28T19:54:33Z")
I recently saw a Smithsonian Channel documentary on West Virginia.[spoiler]Harpers Ferry was home to a National Armory and Arsenal. John Brown led a number of abolitionists in an attack on the complex, intending to use the guns therein to arm escaped slaves. Unfortunately for them, a passenger train arrived in town during the raid. The train was held at the station for a while, then allowed to continue to Baltimore, where athorities were alerted what was going on in Harpers Ferry. Troops led by Robert E. Lee arrived from Washington and attacked the Armory’s firehouse, where John Brown and the abolitionists were holding hostages.[/spoiler]I believe that firehouse is the only intact structure remaining of the complex. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/114 "2013-08-28T19:56:07Z")
43 year-old male. Knew both. I knew about some other marches on Washington, but figured it was the one in the news lately. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/115 "2013-08-28T20:53:15Z")
Knew about John Brown. I wasn’t sure which march on Washington you meant but guessed you meant King’s. Age 56. [sings] John Brown’s body lies moldering in the grave… ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/116 "2013-08-28T21:07:18Z")
> [@madmonk28](#): > > I was having a conversation with a colleauge who is in her late 20s, and she hadn’t heard of either of these two events. I was surprised, but then I asked a few other colleagues in their late 20s and none of them had either. > > The two events are: > > 1. What did John Brown do at Harper’s Ferry? > > 2. What was the march on Washington? I have heard of both. My age is 30. ---
**Author:** ![Animastryfe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Animastryfe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Animastryfe)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/117 "2013-08-28T21:14:01Z")
I did not know who John Brown was before looking him up, and I had a vague idea that the March On Washington had something to do with the US civil rights era and Martin Luther King Jr. However, I am not from the US, and I do not see why anyone not from the US would know much, if anything, about these two subjects. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/118 "2013-08-28T22:00:21Z")
1. Actors who have played John Brown: Johnny Cash, James Mason, Raymon Massey (the definitive performance), and Royal Dano (if Dano had been busy we’d have seen Victor Jory or John Dirkes). 2. Even though the raid had been suppressed by federal troops, it spurred huge grown in Southern states’ militias out of fear of copycat abolitionist slave revolts. Militias, north and south, traditionally wore gray to differentiate them from the regular army. Brown = blue vs gray. 3. An earlier march on Washington was by Coxey’s Army in 1894, protesting the robber barons and the collusive government. An allegory of its progress was _The Wizard of Oz_, with the marchers the Scarecrow (farmers), Tin Woodsman (factory workers), and the Cowardly Lion (Williams Jennings Bryan). Dorothy’s slippers were silver, not ruby, as the marchers wanted the US off the tight-money gold standard. Treyvon Martin notwithstanding, the issues of the 1894 march are still less resolved than the 1963. Male, 53, educated by an antique World Book encyclopedia, public school, and a Midwestern cow college. That old line “you never use Algebra after high school?” It’s true about History, too. Fucking useless. ---
**Author:** ![runningdude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e9c0ed/32.png) [@runningdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/runningdude)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/119 "2013-08-28T22:07:07Z")
Harper’s Ferry, ??? Its at the tip of my tongue though March on Washington? There were several events of that name… perhaps the event Martin Luther King spoke at (today is the 50th anniversary of the MLK Jr speech.) (Mid twenties) ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2013, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293/120 "2013-08-28T22:37:59Z")
The John Brown raid had some interesting factual tidbits. Col Robert E. Lee commanded the forces which retook the armory. LT J.E.B Stuart led the parley party which tried to get Brown to surrender. Stonewall Jackson helped lead the security detail (mostly VMI cadets) for the prisoners. John Wilkes Booth and Walt Whitman witnessed his execution. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/without-looking-it-up-do-you-know-of-these-two-events/667293.md?page=7)