It becomes a question: How many people will attend the DC March on Washington on November 14?
CNN says thousands. Twitter message: police department says 200,000. Organizers say 500,000, in-person participants say millions. I’ve come full circle and am leaning toward half a million or a little more, probably not a million. Making such estimates requires emotional experience. I have somewhat of a say because I organized and directed the two 1989 marches of 500,000 or more.
The drive from my home in Virginia was around midnight, with construction on the 66 expansion and a slight traffic jam, into DC around 1:30. Just east of the Potomac River Bridge is Constitution Avenue, which has been blocked by several police cars. Turned on the GPS while detouring, and a red No Passing sign showed up. Knee discomfort, went around to the closest White House and parked. In order to come back to the car, I memorized it: 19th and E Street. From here to Liberty Square, Constitution Avenue and adjacent streets were empty except for police cars and a special traffic jam. The small plaza was impossible to squeeze into, and the only thing I could hear was people making speeches. Asking around, people said the line had already left, so they headed east with the crowds. Pennsylvania Avenue, probably the widest in DC, was full of people, many with flags and red hats. At the halfway point, it joins Constitution Avenue, goes up Capitol Hill, and turns right to the Supreme Court, where the march ends. There were tens of thousands of people here, and it was impossible to squeeze in. The north and east sides of the Capitol were full of people. I was a little tired, so I laid down on the lawn a little farther away from the Supreme Court, surrounded by resting people. The parade was continuous, so it was impossible to go backwards, and the only way to get back was to take Independence Avenue on the south side of the Capitol. Down Capitol Hill, looking north, the parade was still marching down Constitution Avenue.
Compare this with the 1989 march I directed.
On May 15, 1989, the intellectual march was unprecedented in scale, gathering at the Fuxingmen overpass, heading east toward Tiananmen Square, and occupying half of Chang’an Avenue. In the winter of 1989, I recalled in “A Part of History,” written during my flight: “…… At this point, the hunger strike had entered its third day. Tiananmen Square was almost completely deserted. I planned to set up the procession outside the student hunger strike circle and hold a brief meeting. When I arrived at the front, it was in fact impossible. The picket line was sweating profusely, the head of the line was only pulling up to the northwest corner of the monument, and the tail of the line was probably just passing through the six entrances, so it was impossible for the entire line to enter the square. It was necessary to sit down in place and call the meeting to order.”
— Note that the length of Chang’an Street from the northwest corner of the monument to Rokbu Exit, which is the length of the procession in that case. Looking at it on a google map, it’s about 1.1 miles.
Hong Kong Ming Pao says that “the largest number of students entered Tiananmen Square that day to support the students was 800,000”, but I’d estimate the march to be over 500,000.
In addition, “A Chronicle of the 1989 Chinese Democracy Movement” (with a preface by Yan Jiaqi) quotes media reports from the time that “Today, the capacity of Beijing’s Tiananmen Square reached its highest point since mid-April ……. At about 4:00 p.m., the entire Tiananmen Square was filled with about 800,000 people, about half of whom were students. Students.” I don’t think students make up half of the population, just the center of the square, with marchers and other citizens making up the vast majority. The number of marchers is probably more than 500,000.
The DC Constitution March on the 14th was 1.4 miles from Liberty Square to the Supreme Court (the line kept getting longer and longer than 1.4 miles); the length of the May 15, 1989 march (from Rokbu Exit to the square) was 1.1 miles; Chang’an Avenue was slightly wider than Pennsylvania Avenue (about a lane wider), but the Beijing march only took up half of the road (eventually it took up the whole road); but the Beijing marchers were not as big as the Beijing marchers. Dense, DC marches were loose. –The two marches were roughly equal, both at the level of 500,000 people.
After martial law was imposed in Beijing, on May 22, the intellectual community held another march on a much larger scale, with Yu Zhao and I still in charge. The total number of participants was around one million. On the east side, the assembly point was the Academy of Social Sciences next to the Jianguomen overpass, which I commanded; on the west side, the Fuxingmen overpass, which Zhao Yu commanded; the march was from both east and west towards the square. I was in charge of the east side of the procession, which should be 1/2 of the entire 1 million, or about 500,000. With the experience of directing these two marches, I have a bit of practical experience with a 500,000-strong march.
Ed Martin, the organizer of the DC march and former chairman of the Missouri Republican Party, estimated the number of people marching that day at about 500,000. I think that’s about right.
A side note: the ’89 march was tense, rebellious, and combative, while the DC march was more peaceful, relaxed, and somewhat angry, not hateful. There were a lot of black people, far more than I expected, very involved and enthusiastic, waving flags and chanting slogans from lampposts and other high places. Quite a few church people with flags and signs. There were more Asians, more Vietnamese than Chinese.
“Commitment” is a unique feeling.
The May 15, 1989 march was the first popular march other than by students, under the banner of “intellectuals,” but it was later overwhelmingly attended by citizens and far outnumbered previous college student marches. As you know, students have a kind of “immunity”, while intellectuals are scared to death. It took courage to take to the streets for the first time. For fear of incriminating the authorities, it was very well organized. The institutions formed their own squads, with their own flags in front. There were pickets on both sides of the procession, holding hands to form a “protective chain”, not allowing outsiders to enter, not shouting slogans with outsiders. There were many onlookers, and there were thousands of pickets in front of the line. The atmosphere was a bit tense, and I don’t know if it would be blocked by the military and police, but it was also a bit tragic. As we approached Tiananmen Square, there was thunderous applause on both sides, and the atmosphere turned into a carnival. A week later, on May 22nd, the march was held, and two days after the declaration of martial law, the army was spontaneously blocked by citizens outside the city, making Beijing a real people’s city. So the march was like a carnival, loosely organized (or organized and divided into units), with no more self-protective “human chains” on either side.
The DC march on May 14 was more unorganized and loosely organized than the May 22 march. But it was still not as euphoric and frenzied as the latter, because we were the first people who had a taste of freedom and were afraid of being killed.
Thanks to fate, after 30 years, I’m back on the march again. My legs and feet are old, but my heart is still young.
I feel peaceful, confident, and relaxed from up close. Although this is a remnant of the American spirit, it is still touching.
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