Courtland Cox

The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom remains the most significant mass gathering in the Civil Rights Movement, and its success was largely due to the efforts of the many committee members who planned the event. As a student at Howard University, Courtland Cox served on the steering committee as a representative for the Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee, which gave him a front-row seat to back-room conversations. Here, he recalls the controversy over the speech John Lewis planned to deliver, criticizing the Kennedy administration.