Sixty years ago, Andrew Young and his staff had just emerged from an exhausting campaign against racial segregation in Birmingham, Alabama.
But they didn’t feel no ways tired, as the Black spiritual says. The foot soldiers were on a “freedom high,” Young recalls.And march they did, in the nation’s capital. Just four months later, they massed for what is still considered one of the greatest and most consequential racial justice demonstrations in U.S. history.
But organizers of this year’s commemoration don’t see this as an occasion for kumbaya — not in the face of eroded voting rights nationwide, after the recent striking down of affirmative action in college admissions and abortion rights by the Supreme Court, and amid growing threats of political violence and hatred against people of color, Jews and the LGBTQ community.
“ said in the speech, ’We come to here, Mr. Lincoln, because 100 years ago, in 1863, you promised that we’d be full citizens, and America has not fulfilled the promise’,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network and co-convener of the 60th commemoration of the march. Each time, Sharpton has partnered with members of King’s family. Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of the late civil rights icon, and his wife, Arndrea Waters King, head the Drum Major Institute and are co-conveners of this year’s march. A list of march partners includes about 100 other civil rights, faith and cultural organizations.
Along racial lines, a clear majority of Black adults say efforts to ensure equality for all, regardless of race and ethnicity, haven’t gone far enough. About 58% of Hispanic adults, 55% of Asian American adults and 44% of white adults say the same. A 2022 poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found similar gaps in opinions about the treatment of Black people by police and in the criminal justice system.
From neighborhood redlining and job discrimination to healthcare disparities and incarceration, racism has proven to be the most effective tool to uphold an unjust capitalist system, said Jennifer Jones Austin, CEO of the the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies, an anti-poverty policy and advocacy group and a march partner.
Norton, now 86, and Washington’s nonvoting delegate, said she knew once she saw how many people had come that “the march was not only successful, but they would help us with what we wanted the march to do.” At the 1963 march, the late AFL-CIO leader Walter Reuther seemed to predict the current period of political division, retrenchment and violent threats on democracy.
Malaysia Latest News, Malaysia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
At March on Washington's 60th anniversary, leaders seek energy of original movement for civil rightsSixty years ago, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. issued his resounding call for racial harmony that set off decades of push and pull toward progress.
Read more »
At March on Washington's 60th anniversary, leaders seek energy of original movement for civil rightsSixty years ago, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. issued his resounding call for racial harmony that set off decades of push and pull toward progress.
Read more »
At March on Washington's 60th anniversary, leaders seek energy of original movement for civil rightsSixty years ago, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. issued his resounding call for racial harmony that set off decades of push and pull toward progress
Read more »
At March on Washington's 60th anniversary, leaders seek energy of original movement for civil rightsSixty years ago, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. issued his resounding call for racial harmony that set off decades of push and pull toward progress.
Read more »
At March on Washington's 60th anniversary, leaders seek energy of original movement for civil rightsSixty years ago, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. issued his resounding call for racial harmony that set off decades of push and pull toward progress.
Read more »
At March on Washington's 60th anniversary, leaders seek energy of original movement for civil rightsSixty years ago, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. issued his resounding call for racial harmony that set off decades of push and pull toward progress
Read more »