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- The largest Negro demonstration for freedom since the
- abolition of slavery took place here peacefully today. More
- than 200,000, according to police estimates, came in a vast
- but orderly throng to the Lincoln Memorial to demand
- freedom now.
-
- Away from the Mail, Washington was a deserted city. The
- whites stayed at home, offices were empty, bars closed,
- and military policemen took over the downtown street
- crossings. Outside, some thousands of troops in complete
- battle order stood by.
-
- They might as well have stayed in barracks. Although the
- crowd was twice as large as was expected, and long after
- the march got under way special buses and trains were still
- arriving from every part of the country, there was a
- complete absence of tension.