The 1963 March on Washington was pivotal for the civil rights movement. This week, a broader coalition of foot soldiers heads to D.C., to renew the fight for equality.
The 60th anniversary of the March on Washington is scheduled this Saturday with the theme “Not a Commemoration, a Continuation.”On Aug. 28, 1963, a sea of humanity more than 250,000 strong converged near the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
“Despite the significant progress we have made, we need to rededicate ourselves to the mission my dad gave his life for,” said Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of the slain civil rights icon and the late Coretta Scott King. “We have to do better. This anniversary gives us the opportunity to not just commemorate his historic calling, but to continue his efforts to make life better for everyone.
The original march was conceived by labor leader A. Philip Randolph and Roy Wilkins, then the executive secretary of the NAACP. Bayard Rustin, who worked in tandem with Randolph, was pivotal in executing the march. “Sixty years later we’re still talking about freedom and poverty,” Arline-Bradley said, ticking off auxiliary issues ranging from equal pay and educational equity to health care access and financial literacy. While acknowledging markers of progress, such as Kamala Harris’ vice presidency and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s ascension to the Supreme Court, “we have to keep pushing to raise the consciousness of the country,” she said.
Svante Myrick, president of People for the American Way, a progressive advocacy group, told NBC News the “anniversary is a moment when we know, without a doubt, that we are on the front lines of the most important fights in our history.”
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