Hands Across America was meant to raise money to fight poverty in the United States, but it ended up being controversial.
Science History Images/Alamy Stock PhotoSome of the five million people who participated in Hands Across America in 1986.
For 15 minutes in 1986, the United States came to a standstill. Some five million people gathered across 16 states and 550 cities to hold hands as part of the Hands Across America charity event.
Their purpose? To fight hunger in America. But though the project’s financial goals were not met, Hands Across America created a striking cultural moment that remains potent to this day. In 2019, writer-director Jordan Peele even referenced the event in his horror film Us.
So what was Hands Across America? How was the event developed, how did it ultimately unfold — and why did some see the stunt as controversial?
This is the full story of Hands Across America, the charity event the Washington Post called “the most Eighties thing to happen in the Eighties.”
Ken Kragen Develops A Charity Event To Fight Hunger And Homelessness
Hands Across America was the invention of Ken Kragen, a former talent manager who was no stranger to charity causes. Kragen was the founding president of U.S.A. for Africa. In 1985, the organization had raised over $63 million for humanitarian aid in Africa with the hit song “We Are the World,” which was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and had included superstar performers like Diana Ross, Bruce Springsteen, and Ray Charles.
After this success, Kragen began looking for an idea for a new fundraising event. According to Kragen’s website, the idea of holding hands came from a PR executive who had worked on “We Are The World.” The executive said: “Don’t laugh, but what if we put a continuous line of people together holding hands from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic?”
Kragen didn’t laugh. He thought it was a great idea.
MediaPunch Inc/Alamy Stock PhotoKen Kragen holding his Humanitarian Award at the MTV American Video Awards.
Development of Hands Across America didn’t always go smoothly, however. Kragen initially planned to launch the event with a star-studded song like “We Are The World.” But though a power ballad called “Hands Across America” was set to perform during the halftime show at the 1986 Super Bowl, Michael Jackson protested the plan because he thought it would upstage “We Are The World.”
Instead, a PSA commercial featuring Bill Cosby and Lily Tomlin aired during the Super Bowl on Jan. 26, 1986 to introduce the charity initiative. “Hands Across America will be the biggest community event in the history of the world,” Tomlin explained. “It’s a great American dream, but only you can make it real.”
The event aimed to raise between $50 million and $100 million for poverty and homelessness in America. And it would take place just months later.
How Hands Across America Took Place
Sam Cali/Wikimedia CommonsHands Across America participants in Philadelphia.
Hands Across America was planned by 400 people over the course of just nine months. It cost between $14 and $16 million to organize, but event planners were optimistic that it would ultimately meet its fundraising goals with a very simple idea: To participate in the hand-holding, volunteers would have to pay $10.
On May 25, 1986, the event began.
The human chain started at the very southern tip of Manhattan in New York City with a six-year-old homeless child named Amy Sherwood. From there, the hand holders stretched across the World Trade Center and over the George Washington Bridge before plunging south through New Jersey, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. In Maryland, divers even held hands under the Susquehanna River.
It ran through Washington D.C., where President Ronald Reagan and First Lady Nancy Reagan joined the line from the White House, and then moved west to Ohio (where the Cincinnati Reds held hands with local Little Leaguers), Indiana, and Illinois.
The human chain next turned south to Texas, then west toward New Mexico. It made its way toward Phoenix, and then finished in California, where Mickey Mouse, Lionel Richie, and several other celebrities participated. An unhoused family — Bill and Mary Jones and their five children — made up the end of the human chain in Long Beach, California.
Los Angeles Times Photographic Collection at the UCLA Library.Singer Maria Williams holding hands with Daniel Rias, a homeless man, in Los Angeles.
Along the way, many participants were exuberant about the project. At least five couples got married along the chain, and many were proud just to have joined in.
“In the past I wouldn’t have done much to help out,” a participant in New York told the Washington Post. “But I just felt I had to be here.” In New Mexico, one of the coordinators expressed faith and hope for the initiative, saying: “It can, it will, it’s gonna work… If it doesn’t, my heart will break, pure and simple. This project means so much to me… I’ve never been hungry, and hopefully my babies never will be either.”
Indeed, Hands Across America seemed — to many — like a swell of optimism and joy, and a real moment of change in the fight against poverty. In all, around 5.5 million people participated, and the entire country stood still for 15 minutes as Americans in 16 states and 550 cities joined hands.
Judy Christensen/Wikimedia CommonsHands Across America participants in Maryland.
“This is just the beginning,” Kragen announced in New York. “When today is over, roll up your sleeves and go out to work in your community. We have to move from the big event to the person on the street.”
But was Hands Across America a success?
Did Hands Across America Make A Difference? Why Some Saw It As A “Superficial Gesture”
In many ways, Hands Across America fell short of its goals.
For one thing, the chain was not actually unbroken across the entire country. There were large gaps along the 4,125-mile route in rural areas, swatches of desert, or places that simply lacked the manpower. In Indiana, for example, 400,000 people were needed, but just 250,000 participated. (By contrast, New Jersey had 80,000 more people than the state needed.) In some of these sections, the gaps were filled with ribbons or even with livestock.
At the same time, people in cities and regions that were skipped felt angry at being left out of the supposedly nation-wide initiative. Politicians like Senator Ted Kennedy protested that Hands Across America had avoided New England entirely.
And others were upset that Hands Across America had included Reagan. Just days before the event, the New York Times reported that the president had remarked: “I don’t believe that there is anyone going hungry in America simply by reason of denial or lack of ability to feed them. It is by people not knowing where or how to get this help.”
Ronald Reagan Presidential Library/YouTubeSome activists objected to President Ronald Reagan’s participation in Hands Across America.
According to History, one activist told ABC News: “We resent [Reagan] standing there grabbing hands like he’s part of the effort to eliminate homelessness and hunger. He’s part of the problem.”
Hands Across America also fell short of its actual goal of raising $50 to $100 million. Though participants had been asked to give $10 to stand in line, many had just shown up and joined the human chain without paying anything at all. In the end, the event raised just $15 million after operating costs. (CitiBank and Coca-Cola donated a combined eight million dollars).
$15 million was not insubstantial, but many homeless advocates saw the event as a farce, describing it in The New York Times as “a superficial gesture that offered no long-term solution to poverty in the United States.”
“I’m a ’60s activist,” one man, who claimed to have marched at Selma, remarked to the Washington Post. “I guess this is something of a protest, but anything sponsored by Coca-Cola, Citibank, and Ronald Reagan has to be viewed with skepticism.”
The mixed optics of the event — an extravaganza that may not have done much to substantially help anyone — left an impression on writer and director Jordan Peele, who was seven years old at the time. He later incorporated the event in Us, a horror film in which things are not what they seem.
Universal Pictures/YouTubeJordan Peele used Hands Across America imagery during one of the final scenes of his 2019 horror film, Us.
“Hands Across America was this idea of American optimism and hope, and Ronald Reagan-style-we-can-get-things-done-if-we-just-hold-hands,” Peele told Vanity Fair in 2019. “It’s a great gesture — but you can’t actually cure hunger and all that… There are several 80s images that conjure up a feeling of both bliss and innocence, and also the darkest of the dark.”
Like it or hate it, Hands Across America stands as a singular historical moment that won’t likely be repeated anytime soon. Many have expressed doubt that today’s Americans could unite for something like it. Would people today have the attention span? Would they be able to put down their phones long enough to join hands?
No one’s pushing to recreate Hands Across America, so we may never know. But the initiative stands as a uniquely 80s cultural moment — a strange but significant 15 minutes in which the entire country stood still.
After reading about Hands Across America, look through these photos of 1980s New York City. Or, learn about the Brat Pack, the group of young actors who shaped 1980s culture.
