Thousands gather to mark 60 years of Martin Luther King’s ‘I have a dream’ speech

Thousands of Americans gathered in the United States capital to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington, a pivotal event in the country’s civil rights movement where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic “I have a dream” speech.

About the march

On Saturday (August 26), thousands of people marched in the US capital as this year’s rally was held at the Lincoln Memorial which was once the backdrop to King’s impassioned call for equality.

Six decades ago on this day, 250,000 people led by King marched to the US capital in a push to end discrimination on the basis of race, colour, religion, sex or national origin. This time around, various speakers spoke about how King’s dream is now under threat and the fruits of his work at risk.

Speakers at the march include civil rights leaders such as the Reverend Al Sharpton, founder and president of the National Action Network; King’s son Martin Luther King III his granddaughter Yolanda Renee King and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is the first Black lawmaker to lead a party in Congress.

‘Rights under attack’

Addressing the crowd on Saturday, Margaret Huang, CEO of the Southern Poverty Law Center, an advocacy group said that the 1963 march – which many credit with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 – opened doors and spurred new tools to fight racial discrimination.

However, the recent laws throughout the country that “claw away at the right to vote” and target the LGBTQ+ community threaten to erase some of those gains.

“These campaigns against our ballots, our bodies, our school books, they are all connected. When our right to vote falls all other civil and human rights can fall too, but we’re here today to say ‘not on our watch,’” said Huang.

Distortion of history

Kimberle Crenshaw, executive director of the African American Policy Forum, said the anniversary this year comes amid a troubling time. “The very history that the march is commemorating is being not only challenged but distorted,” said Crenshaw. She was referring to bans across several mostly Republican US states on books and classroom instruction based on so-called critical race theory (CRT), which views a legacy of racism as shaping American history.

This is in addition to other moves like the removal of an African American Studies course from public schools in the US states of Florida and Arkansas which Crenshaw called it a “concerted effort to silence conversation about that history.”

Jonathan Greenblatt, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, which played a role in the campaign for the Civil Rights Act’s enactment, said that while the US has come a long way since 1963, in terms of the goals imagined by King’s “dream,” recent Supreme Court rulings have proved to be a major setback in that progress.

He referred to recent verdicts on affirmative action and access to abortion. “We’ve seen an expansion of anti-Semitism, we’ve seen an intensification of racism,” said Greenblatt.

Biden and Harris to meet march organisers at White House

US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, on Monday (August 28) will meet the organisers of the march at the White House to mark the 1963 meeting between organisers of the original march and the administration of President John F. Kennedy.

(With inputs from agencies)

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