Nearly 100 people planning to travel from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., to commemorate the 63rd anniversary of the March on Washington were left behind Friday after two buses failed to arrive. Members of the NAACP, National Action Network, local colleges and other groups gathered early in the morning at Progress Plaza in North Philadelphia for the trip. The day was also intended to serve as a rally to encourage people to vote. But after hours of waiting, the buses still hadn’t arrived. “We’re having trouble across the country with some of the buses, some of the buses being abruptly canceled without a reason,” the Rev. Jerome Fordham of the Pennsylvania National Action Network said. “We don’t know what happened, but they’re shutting down buses without a reason.” Those waiting in Philadelphia scrambled to find other transportation, but it was too late. Cathy Hicks, head of the Philadelphia NAACP, told NBC10 that the national headquarters for the National Action Network led the effort to book buses across the country. When asked whether she believed the buses had been paid for in advance, Hicks said, “Our understanding is they were.” The Philadelphia chapter of the National Action Network said Philadelphia wasn’t the only place where buses failed to arrive. During the previous two days, buses did not arrive in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania, according to the organization. The Indiana chapter said on social media that its bus trip had been canceled because of unforeseen circumstances. The statement said bus permits were not granted for travel from Indiana and that the same thing happened in several other states. Hicks said she questioned whether the widespread problems could be attributed to a simple mistake. “It would be nice to think it was just a clerical error, but I don’t see that, not with the organizations like NAN and NAACP, I mean this is not something we have never done,” Hicks said. Because local chapters of many of the organizations did not make the bus reservations themselves, they did not know which bus company to contact for answers. Hicks said she was trying to determine whether one business was responsible for the problems across the country or whether several different bus companies were involved. “We’re just concerned in the climate we’re dealing with today, that there may have been you know, something nefarious that was a part of this,” Hicks said. NBC10 reached out to the national headquarters of the National Action Network but had not received a response. NBC10 was unable to contact the bus company because those involved could not identify which company had been booked. This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC Philadelphia. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC Philadelphia journalist edited the article for publication. ...read more read less