Washington DC [US], August 27 : Thousands of people gathered in the US capital to commemorate the 60th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s galvanising “I have a dream” speech, which is considered one of the pivotal events in the 1960s American civil rights movement, The Washington Post reported.
The 1963 march is believed to have brought more than 2,50,000 people in Washington to push for an end to discrimination on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex, or national origin.
The people gathered again at the Lincoln Memorial here on Saturday to declare that King’s dream is "newly threatened and the fruits of his work are at risk," as per The Post.
On a sweltering August day, the marchers came from distant cities to the site where King stood to assert that his crusade was being assailed, that court rulings, legislation and political extremism have undone or stymied the racial and social progress of the last half-century.
The day-long rally consisted of speeches by leaders of civil and human rights groups, and representatives from an array of other organizations, The Post reported.
“If I could speak to my grandfather today, I would say, ‘I’m sorry we still have to be here to rededicate ourselves to finishing your work, and ultimately realizing your hidden dream,’” King’s granddaughter Yolanda Renee King told the crowd.
Her father, King’s eldest son, Martin Luther King III, said: “I’m very concerned about the direction our country is going in. … Instead of moving forward, it feels as if we are moving backward.”
“Democracy, voting rights and the rights of women and children must be protected, and gun violence must end, he said. Echoing the words of his father 60 years ago, he said, “then maybe one day we will be a great nation,” Washington Post quoted him as saying.
College students, retirees, a psychotherapist, a landscaper, members of Black sororities and fraternities and a sprinkling of 1963 March veterans, among others, converged before the memorial to hear the speakers and be heard themselves.
They carried signs that read “Stop Voter Suppression,” “Immigration is not a crime” and “Protect LGBTQ+ families.”
Among the speakers, was Andrew Young Jr., who at 91 is one of the last living civil rights leaders of his generation and was present at the 1963 march. His career included turns as Atlanta mayor, a member of Congress and a United Nations ambassador.
He reminded the crowd of the power of voting. The ballot is “the passport to freedom and opportunity,” Young said, urging people to keep their focus forward.
“Don’t look at all the things that are wrong — look back at where we were … years ago when we had the first March on Washington,” The Post quoted Young as saying.
Potesta, an 18-year-old political science student from Seattle, said he in part chose to go to college in DC to attend marches and protests.
“I am transgender,” he said. “For me, seeing transgender rights be attacked all throughout the United States has just been really awful,” The Post quoted him as saying.
“I would really like to see that amended,” he said. He also expressed solidarity with African Americans, whom he said “are still missing equality of opportunity”.
Trancoso, a Black immigrant from Trinidad and Tobago who worked for years as a nursing supervisor before retiring, travelled from Brooklyn and said that the threat to ‘Black progress’ was most symbolized by January 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, which stood gleaming at the opposite end of the National Mall.
“The ease with which the insurrectionists made their way into the seat of the US government suggested to her that their grievances are much more likely to find sympathy, even though they represent a grave threat to democracy,” Trancoso said.
“They were allowed to go in,” she added. “They were privileged to storm the Capitol, to want to lynch the vice president of America.” Had a Black mob tried to do such a thing, she said, they would have been gunned down,” The Post quoted Trancoso as saying.
However, the crowd appeared to fall well short of the 75,000 people its organizers had estimated would attend. Tens of thousands from across the country came to the 1963 March, a gathering that helped spur the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — the most important civil rights legislation since the post-Civil War era of Reconstruction.
The legislation outlawed segregation in theaters, restaurants and hotels in the US, according to the National Archives. It banned discrimination in employment and ended segregation in public places such as swimming pools, libraries and public schools.
Notably, the months leading up to the 1963 March were bloody and full of conflict between activists and racists.
After the speeches, the crowd marched to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, where a commanding 30-foot-tall granite statue of the leader overlooks the Tidal Basin.
The statue stands across the water from the memorial to Thomas Jefferson, who wrote in the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal,” but who was the owner of people he enslaved, The Washington Post reported.
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