National Shrine security guard remembers when he biked to the March on Washington 60 years ago
Washington DC August 26 2023
Reggie Tobias no longer has the bicycle that he rode to the March on Washington 60 years ago when he was 17, but he still has memories of that unforgettable day.
“Seeing the crowd, the crowd of people. I was just a teenager. I was overwhelmed… I never saw that many people before,” said Tobias, who is now 77.
For the past 23 years, Tobias has served as a security guard at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, after retiring following a 33-year career at the D.C. Department of Public Works.
The native of Washington, D.C., grew up in St. Luke’s Parish and has been a longtime member of Holy Redeemer Parish in the nation’s capital.
On the day of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Aug. 28, 1963, Tobias and his three best friends jumped on their bikes and pedaled to the Lincoln Memorial, after one of their teachers at Phelps Vocational High School encouraged them to go.
The teens had to stay on the back side of the Lincoln Memorial with their bikes, but they had a great vantage point of the speakers, including Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech that day.
“I saw him. He was standing at the podium… He was very inspirational, (very) moving,” said Tobias, who remembered how people in the crowd along the Reflecting Pool were swaying back and forth as the civil rights leader spoke.
From his prime spot at the Lincoln Memorial, Tobias got to meet and shake hands with a lot of stars of that era who were attending the rally, including Sidney Poitier, Lena Horne, Harry Belafonte and Burt Lancaster.
The crowd was so big, Tobias had trouble getting his bike out of there after the rally.
Before reflecting on his memories of the march, Tobias paused after an early morning Mass at the National Shrine’s Crypt Church to sit in a back pew and bow his head and pray. “I always do that,” he said, explaining that he prays for his wife of 50 years, Mary, who worked as a nurse at Greater Southeast Hospital in Washington and who died two years ago, and he also prays for his late mother and father.
Tobias, who has a gentle smile, regards the National Shrine as a holy place, and it has become like a second home to him. “It’s overwhelming to see the people coming to the church every day. It shows that God is good,” he said.
In addition to working at the shrine, Tobias is a member of the Knights of St. John and the Knights of Columbus. His uniform as a security guard includes a blue blazer with a circular National Shrine patch on one arm, and on his lapel he had Washington Redskins and New York Yankees pins, reflecting his favorite sports teams over the years.
Reggie Tobias, a longtime security guard at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, is a member of Holy Redeemer Parish in the nation’s capital. Sixty years ago, he rode his bike to the March on Washington. (Catholic Standard photo by Mark Zimmermann)
This summer his friend and fellow longtime National Shrine security guard, Walter Clay Robinson Sr., died at the age of 101. Robinson, who was Baptist, was a World War II Army veteran who attended the March on Washington in 1963 when he was working as a medical technician. In a 2013 interview on the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, Robinson said he fought for freedom in World War II, and he attended the march to support Dr. King’s work for freedom, equality and opportunity for minorities and the poor.
In an interview during that earlier anniversary, Tobias said he hoped the message of the March on Washington and Dr. King’s dream would be taken to heart by Americans today. “We need to live it, you know,” he said.
Reflecting on the march’s 60th anniversary in August 2023, Tobias said, “Progress has been made, but there’s a lot more to do.”
