Odetta
Joan Baez and Bob Dylan
Music of the March
Some of the music of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was performed at a stage erected near the Washington Monument at 15th and Constitution Avenue before the actual march began. That’s where Joan Baez sang“We Shall Overcome” joined by the tens of thousands gathered early that morning.
When the crowd, now in the hundreds of thousands began the walk to the Lincoln Memorial there was spontaneous singing of freedom songs by the marchers.
Marian Anderson was scheduled to begin the official program on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial by leading the quarter of a million people assembled in the national anthem but Anderson didn’t arrive on time so noted opera soprano, Camilla Williams filled in on that duty. Anderson would later sing “He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands.”