Macon Civil Rights advocate reflects on 60th anniversary of March on Washington

As the nation marked the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington on Monday, Dr. Chester Fontenot, Jr., a lifelong Macon resident and Director of Africana Studies at Mercer University, recalls its historic impact and its legacy in Macon's own civil rights journey.

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — As the nation marked the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington on Monday, Dr. Chester Fontenot, Jr., a lifelong Macon resident and Director of Africana Studies at Mercer University, recalls its historic impact and its legacy in Macon’s own civil rights journey.

In 1963, a 13-year-old Fontenot listened to the march on the radio, guided by his parents.

“You work, you do your best, and then history judges after that,” Fontenot said, noting the significance of the event was unclear at the time.

According to Fontenot, the March on Washington and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech were pivotal in shaping the Civil Rights March of 1968 in Macon. The local march came five years after the event in Washington and just months after King’s final visit to Macon and assassination in Tennessee.

“That march (1968) happened because segregation was continuing here in Macon,” he said. “Buses were still segregated and communities were not open for Black people to move there.”

Now, 60 years later, Fontenot assesses the progress made and looks to future generations for continued efforts.

“My generation has passed the torch,” he said. “We took it as far as we could go. My hope is that the generation coming up now will take that torch, take that baton and carry as far as they can.”

Dr. Fontenot has been with Mercer University since 1999.