July 12, 1964 - About 40,000 civil rights supporters took part in a parade and demonstration today in San Francisco against Senator Barry Goldwater’s candidacy.
The crowd in the City Hall plaza was addressed at the end of the parade by New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, former Ambassador Henry Cabot Lodge, and Senators Jacob Javits and Kenneth Keating of New York.
However, these political leaders — anti-Goldwater Republicans all — steered away from attacking the Arizona conservative.
The parade began at the foot of Market Street and moved up the street to the Civic Center, where a platform had been constructed on the City Hall steps. From there, leaders of the major Negro organizations that have led the civil rights drive attacked Goldwater in bitter language.
When Rockefeller took the microphone and did not add to the verbal assaults on Goldwater, the crowd became restive. Its humming murmur of discontent interrupted and distracted the Governor.
A. Philip Randolph, head of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, told the gathering: “I cannot see how any Negro with any self-respect can even give the slightest presumption to Barry Goldwater as President of the United States.”
John Lewis, national chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, said: “No political party can expect to survive that nominates a man like Barry Goldwater for the Presidency of the United States.”
The political leaders were introduced by Jackie Robinson, the former baseball star, who said he would support President Johnson if the Republicans nominated Goldwater.
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