[1][2] Hands Across America was first publicly announced at a Manhattan press conference on October 22, 1985, featuring Kragen and videotaped messages from Bill Cosby, Kenny Rogers, and Pete Rose.

Marvin J. Rosenblum, who had conceived of the idea in 1975 and spent a year trying to bring it to fruition, said he found it "hard to believe" that no one in the organization remembered his heavily promoted campaign.

[8] The song was written by Marc Blatte, John Carney, and Larry Gottlieb, and featured lead vocals by session singers Joe Cerisano and Sandy Farina, and the band Toto.

[9] On January 18, dozens of celebrities joined hands with hundreds of locals on the main street of Taft, California to film a music video for the song, which was set to first air during the Super Bowl XX halftime show the following week.

[22] In the days leading up to the event, organizers announced that those who had not donated would not be turned away from joining hands, in the hopes of encouraging more participation and creating a more complete chain of people.

Notable participants in Battery Park included New York governor Mario Cuomo, mayor Ed Koch, Cardinal John O'Connor, Senator Alfonse D'Amato, Yoko Ono and her son Sean Lennon, Harry Belafonte, Helen Hayes, Lily Tomlin, Bella Abzug, Kool and the Gang,[25] Bianca Jagger, Edward James Olmos,[26] Ken Kragen, and Liza Minnelli.

[2] Over 200,000 people joined the line in New York City, five times more than were needed to cover the 12-mile stretch across most of Manhattan, including Glenn Close, William Hurt, and Sam Waterston.

[27] On the George Washington Bridge, Brooke Shields and Christy Fichtner (who had been selected as Miss USA five days earlier) stood at the sign marking the border between New York and New Jersey.

Grover Washington, Jr. stood in Fairmount Park, while Pennsylvania governor Dick Thornburgh and several members of the Philadelphia Eagles participated in front of Independence Hall.

[37][38] Pedestrians were not permitted to stand on the Thomas J. Hatem Memorial Bridge between Perryville and Havre de Grace, Maryland, so a group of scuba divers connected the line underneath the surface of the Susquehanna River.

Billy Graham spoke;[42] the White House, where President Ronald Reagan and his family participated; and the Lincoln Memorial, where Coretta Scott King and her children Martin and Bernice joined the line.

White House staff, Secret Service agents, and members of the press connected the chain through the secured North Lawn of the executive mansion.

[2][50] The greatest number of participants in the chain of any state were in Ohio, where the route zig-zagged from Youngstown[51] through Akron[52] and Cleveland to Toledo,[53] then returned eastward to Columbus before proceeding southwest to Dayton[54] and Cincinnati.

[64][65] In Chicago, Illinois, the route ran up King Drive and Michigan Avenue to the Oak Street Beach and Lincoln Park, proceeding from there to the western and southwestern suburbs.

[66] Notable participants in the city included Oprah Winfrey at Cermak Road, mayor Harold Washington on a stretch of Michigan Avenue lined with over 1,000 city employees, Illinois governor James R. Thompson and Super Bowl XX champion quarterback Jim McMahon on the Magnificent Mile, Senator Alan J. Dixon in Lincoln Park, and Cardinal Joseph Bernardin in Orland Park.

[70] In Champaign, where the 1985 Chicago Bears had trained for their successful Super Bowl run four months earlier, Walter Payton sponsored a mile of the line, but was unable to attend due to the team's spring practice in Platteville, Wisconsin.

[77] Kentucky's segment included Ryan's Hope stars Christopher Durham and Malcolm Groome in Bardwell and Clinton, respectively, and Mel McDaniel and Peter Fonda at the Tennessee state line in Fulton.

[78] The official midpoint of the line was in Ripley, Tennessee, where 14,000 people gathered along a three-mile stretch of U.S. Route 51 alongside Judy Collins, Brenda Lee, the Marshall Tucker Band,[79] Lynn Anderson,[2] Terri Gibbs, and General Hospital's André Landzaat.

[98] In Blythe, California, an estimated 10,000 people gathered from the Arizona state border to downtown, including Senator Alan Cranston, Bo Derek, Shelley Duvall, and Anson Williams.

[99][100] The segment of the route through the Colorado Desert from Blythe to Indio was canceled due to concerns about extreme heat, and a "human energy ribbon" stretched across this 100-mile gap.

Robert Schuller led 3,000 parishioners in joining hands, including Pat Boone and state attorney general John Van de Kamp.

[105] In Anaheim, Disneyland allowed the line to enter its gates, where park employees and their family members joined hands with costumed characters and Walt Disney Company president Frank Wells.

[106] A loop traversed the Santa Monica Mountains into the San Fernando Valley; a mile there near the Sportsmen's Lodge was sponsored by Steven Spielberg, who was joined by Stacy Keach, Tracy Nelson, LeVar Burton,[107] Richard Dreyfuss,[105] and costumed Warner Bros. cartoon characters.

[106] Gregory Peck and Sidney Poitier were in Beverly Hills,[106] while Dyan Cannon,[105] Tom Hayden, and Jeff Bridges stood in Santa Monica.

[108][106] Celebrities in Long Beach included Lyle Alzado, Shari Belafonte, Whoopi Goldberg, Dudley Moore, Donny Osmond, Daniel J. Travanti, Cicely Tyson, Ben Vereen, Raquel Welch,[2] Donna Mills, and Kenny Loggins.

In selecting charities to receive the money, USA for Africa generally preferred those seeking to produce long-term changes rather than those aiming to provide immediate relief.

[122] Geldof's comment and the term "compassion fatigue" were frequently used by media outlets in questioning whether Hands Across America's efforts to raise awareness would have any long-term impact.

[124] After the runaway success of "We Are the World" and the more modest fundraising of Hands Across America, the USA for Africa Foundation adopted a lower profile, moving out of its offices in Century City and cutting operating costs.

[125] Its next fundraising effort, "Brands Across America", encouraged shoppers to send in proof-of-purchase of food products, in exchange for which the manufacturer would donate a portion of the proceeds to USA for Africa.

", Homer Simpson remembers sitting on the couch while his wife and children, along with the Flanders and Lovejoy families, participate in the event, watching a television which reports that "except for large gaps in the western states, Hands Across America was a complete success".