In one of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s most memorable speeches, he described himself as a drum major for justice. Had he still been alive and at last week’s 40th anniversary commemorative March on Washington, he would have been a drum major without much of a band.

That’s not a dream — it’s a nightmare. And an embarrassing one at that.

As Congressman John Lewis, the youngest person to speak at the original march, reminded those who bothered to show up last week, the 1963 March on Washington, which attracted 250,000 demonstrators, was organized without all the conveniences of fax machines, e-mails, cell phones and other modern technology. Last week, with all of those devices at our disposal, less than 5,000 people came to the Lincoln Memorial.

Forty years ago, the “Big Six” civil rights leaders delivered speeches at the march. Last week, there were many big people talking, but few of them from our major civil rights organization. Jesse Jackson was there. And so was Martin Luther King III, now president of his father’s organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and his family.

However, neither NAACP President Kweisi Mfume nor Board Chair Julian Bond was present. Marc Morial, the new president of the National Urban League, was absent. Noticeably missing was Minister Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader who convened a march of 1 million Black men in 1995. Dorothy Height, head of the National Council of Negro Women, did not address the rally. Wade Henderson, executive director of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, did not speak. Trade union leaders, such as William Lucy, did not appear. Instead of the crowd listening to a who’s who of African-American leaders, it was more like a who’s where?

As I sat on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, looking into a crowd that I futilely hoped would expand as the hour grew later, I wondered if we, as a people and as a country, have lost our commitment to civil rights. Perhaps there are more people out there than we realize who agree with conservative talk show host Armstrong Williams, who argues that as long as we have been marching, we should be wherever we were going by now.

Jesse Jackson was not surprised by the low turnout.

“Those who have the capacity to convene this are not conveners,” he explained. “The conveners of ’63 were organized labor and mainline [religious] denominations—groups that had institutional strength. Those forces are not involved directly here.”

Before last week’s march had even started, Jackson was already looking ahead to another one.

“I feel that by next Labor Day, they [groups not present last week] will be here,” he told me. “We want to have a massive get-out-the-vote/voter registration rally here on that day. That will be the countdown for the presidential election.”

In the meantime, organizers of last week’s march spoke of a 15-month rolling mobilization plan, aimed at stimulating activism through the next presidential election. But if the latest march is a measure of their clout, they may was well roll over and surrender. If they can’t beat the bushes for more people than showed up last week, they will not be able to remove George Bush from the White House in 2004.

In the words of Dr. King: Where do we go from here?

First, quickly convene a meeting of national leaders — a similar meeting should be arranged at the local level — and develop what civil rights activist Ron Daniels likes to refer to as operational unity.

Second, call an immediate moratorium on all national marches. Let’s have a real one or not suffer the embarrassment of announcing a rally and then have so few people show. If we resume the marches, make sure the major players are there, with their bands and not their quartets. And if they aren’t there, let’s make them explain why they are MIA.

Finally, let’s re-examine our basic civil rights thrust. In our efforts to broaden the “civil rights coalition,” we run the risk of becoming such a smorgasbord of everything that we end up standing for nothing. I know this position is not politically correct, but I am not trying to be political — just correct. Of course, I recognize the value of coalitions, but sometimes we become so entangled in them that the issue of racism gets lost in the endless laundry list of grievances.

If there is another national march, it should be well organized or we should stay at home. That’s what most people did last week and we don’t need to suffer through that indignity again.