Voting with Their Feet

They came by car, by train (but not by plane, in deference to the striking air controllers), in thousands of chartered buses and even on the city's Metro, which was free to all riders for the day. They gathered in Washington last Saturday for a protest rally of a size and vehemence not seen since the antiwar marches of a decade ago. The event was billed as Solidarity Day and organized by the AFL-CIO, which "rented" the subway for $65,000. On hand were more than 250,000 union members, civil rights activists, environmentalists and others enraged by Ronald Reagan's policies. While the President relaxed at Camp David, the crowd marched down Constitution Avenue to the Capitol and then cheered when speaker after speaker denounced the Administration. As National Urban League President Vernon Jordan proclaimed: "We won't stand still when our programs are gutted, our jobs taken away and our dreams deferred."

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