Black participation was sparse, but several blacks spoke to the rally, including Mrs. Corretta Scott King; Phil Hutchins, former officer of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee: George Wiley, head of the National Welfare Rights Organization; and Dick Gregory.
While Mrs. King was speaking, a group of people close to the stage raised a 300-pound cross with someone strapped to it for several minutes.
Marshals trained by the New Mobilization Committee, the march's sponsor, tightly controlled the crowd. Among their slogans was "Do it in the road."
The march scheduled for 10 a. m. started at 10:25 a. m. and was led by three drummers, followed by eleven coffins containing the names of the 40,000 war dead. Behind them, a man carried the 300-lb, wooden cross. He explained, "If Jesus Christ were alive today, he would impeach Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon."
Chants of "Peace Now" and "Ho Ho Ho Chi Minh- NLF is gonna win" were heard sporadically throughout the march. Other chants were. "One two, three four. Tricky Dicky stop the war" and "Peace. peace. peace peace. Spiro Agnew
back to Greece." Marchers shouted "We want our money back" as they passed the Internal Revenue Service and "Free Bobby Seale" as they went by the Justice Department.
Placards and banners dominated the march. Signs were rife with references to Spiro Agnew and the Silent Majority: "Effetism in Defense of Liberty is No Vice." "Tyranny Has Always Depended On a Silent Majority." "Keep Spiro Agnew in the Silent Majority." and "What Plan, Mr. President?" Several people carried large NLF flags and red and black banners. Many other marchers carried small American flags.
At one point in the march a group of about 100 people behind a banner reading "Power to the People" charged through the cordon of marshals who lined the route at Eighth Street in an apparent attempt to attack the White House, but were forced back by the marshals.
During the afternoon, the museums were overflowing with people resting after the march.
Among the Harvard personalities participating in the rally at the Washington Monument were George Wald, Higgins Professor of Biology, who spoke to the crowd, and buckskin-clad, former Harvard psychologist Timothy Leary. "Out of sight," Leary commented.
The figure of 250,000 attributed to the number of marchers was termed "modest" by police Chief Jerry Wilson, New Mobe sources claim that over 500,000 attended the march and the rally.