Goodwin House Alexandria hosted the first panel in a series on Jan. 30, honoring the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. through the perspectives of three Alexandrians.

The panelists were Gwen Day Fuller, who heard the “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963, and is the daughter of the legendary Ferdinand T. Day and a former educator; Lt. Col. Army Reserve Fannie Allen, retired, who is now director of The Allen Protocol and Leadership Institute; and Mark Raabe, a former FBI agent who stood near King during his famous speech.

Retired Army Col. and Concerned Citizens Network of Alexandria Executive Director Jim Paige moderated the panel. Paige co-founded CCNA, a nonprofit focused on supporting students and addressing equity issues, in 2009 alongside Gwendolyn Hubbard Lewis. He was honored as a Living Legend in Alexandria in 2023 and received the Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award from President Joe Biden in the same year.

While the panel and discussion were open to the public, Paige said the goal was really to connect residents of Goodwin House and the young people in the city.

“There are folk in the Goodwin House who need to know the folk from Alexandria City High School,” Paige said. “This [panel] is about bringing us together so we can learn together. So they can know who Martin Luther King is.”

Goodwin House Alexandria is owned and operated by Goodwin Living, a faith-based not for profit senior living and healthcare services organizations that serves more than 2,500 older adults across the region. Goodwin Living and CCNA partnered for the event.

The “I Have a Dream” speech was the 12th and final speech of the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963. The March started at the Washington Monument and culminated at the Lincoln Memorial. It’s estimated that around 250,000 people were in attendance.

Other speakers at the March on Washington included A. Philip Randolph, the march director; Daisy Bates, the leader of the Arkansas NAACP branch in 1957 when the Little Rock Nine attempted to integrate into a white high school; Walter Reuther, president of the United Automobile Workers union; and Roy O. Wilkins, an NAACP leader; among many others.

There were also iconic musical performances that day by Mahalia Jackson, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and the band Peter, Paul and Mary.

Day Fuller said there was “no question” whether she would attend King’s speech that day, as her father, a prominent civil rights leader, would be in attendance no matter what.

“We would be on whatever bus, train or car that would take us down to the [National] Mall for the March on Washington,” Day Fuller said during the panel. “… We had heard so many things that were negative about the March, that we should be careful … and when we got there, it was almost eerie; it was so quiet and peaceful and loving.

“The kindness we felt among the people was amazing. If only we could go back to that,” she said. “It is a day that is etched in my heart – I’ll never forget it.”

Raabe was in the FBI at the time and was assigned to the March. He said he only knew of one other Washington, D.C. field office agent assigned to the March on the actual day; reports since then state that then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was spying on King as early as the late 1950s.

“The two of us … had cameras and no particular assignment other than we were part of the crowd,” Raabe said in an interview with the Times. “We certainly weren’t there to control the crowd.”

Raabe said in the interview that he felt there was an “overwhelming” desire to have a peaceful gathering on the National Mall.

“There were police there, you can see them in the film. You saw very few weapons or arms. The police were more … just a presence,” he said.

Raabe, at the panel, said he remembers the March on Washington as being peaceful. And, he said he never felt uncomfortable as a white person at the March.

“[The March] was driven by peace and harmony, singing and people dressed up,” he said. “It was a joyous occasion, driven by a purpose.”

He recalled only two speeches from the day: those by civil rights activist and Democratic House Rep. John Lewis and King.

“There was a point in those last seven minutes of [King’s] speech when [I] just couldn’t believe what [I] was hearing. It’s so beautiful. … [It was an] incredible kind of oratory that lifts and inspires,” he said. “I went home and told my wife, ‘I witnessed history, and [life] is never going to be the same.’”

This point in King’s speech is when he repeatedly uses the phrase, “I have a dream,” to share his hopes for the future despite the present and past being so bleak.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today,” King said.

Raabe said when his family members from his home state of Minnesota visited, he always took them to the Lincoln Memorial to try and find the exact spot where he stood behind King.

Fannie Allen attended King’s funeral in Atlanta on April 9, 1968, when she was attending Morris Brown College, a historically Black college in Georgia. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.

Allen said she didn’t know much about King before his assassination, but hearing the news elicited feelings of sadness, shock, anger and fear. It was through an article in Jet, a magazine that focuses on African American news and culture, and his funeral that Allen became acquainted with King’s life.

“I watched his casket go down 100th Street, driven by horses. As students, we stood still or we sat on the wall and watched,” Allen recalled. “I stood in line for three, almost four hours to view his remains. It was after that that I became very familiar with him.”

She said she was inspired by reading King’s “Letter from a Birmingham [, Alabama] Jail,” from May 1963, which was addressed to eight Alabama clergymen who criticized his nonviolent protests.

“My work, from that day forward, … from that letter, I became more determined as an individual to work for civil rights,” Allen said. “No, I did not stand on a platform and speak per se. … In my own way, I continued to work for civil rights.”

Paige then turned to the audience for questions, many of which came from the ACHS students in attendance. One audience member asked who the next leader of a 21st-century civil rights movement would be and if the United States could have another moment like the “I Have a Dream” speech.

“Every little bit that we do helps us move toward getting to that place,” said Day Fuller. “I’m so hopeful that our young people will see what has happened in the past [and] what as brought us to our future and they will want to do things with the help and support of older people to [make change happen].”

The next CCNA and Goodwin House co-sponsored panel discussion will be on Feb. 26 from 1:30 to 3 p.m. at the Goodwin House Bailey’s Crossroads retirement community. Theologians and historians will explore faith’s role in the beliefs and actions of King and President Abraham Lincoln.