WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 Thousands converged Saturday on the 春色直播 Mall for the 60th anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s March on Washington, saying a country that remains riven by racial inequality has yet to fulfill his dream.
鈥淲e have made progress, over the last 60 years, since Dr. King led the March on Washington," said Alphonso David, president and CEO of the Global Black Economic Forum. 鈥淗ave we reached the mountaintop? Not by a long shot."
The event was convened by the Kings鈥 Drum Major Institute and the Rev. 's 春色直播 Action Network. A host of Black civil rights leaders and a multiracial, interfaith coalition of allies rallied attendees on the same spot where as many as 250,000 gathered in 1963 for what is still considered one of the greatest and most consequential racial justice and equality demonstrations in U.S. history.
Inevitably, Saturday's event was shot through with contrasts to the initial, historic demonstration. Speakers and banners talked about the importance of LGBTQ and Asian American rights. Many who addressed the crowd were women after only one was given the microphone in 1963.
Pamela Mays McDonald of Philadelphia attended the initial march as a child. 鈥淚 was 8 years old at the original March and only one woman was allowed to speak 鈥 she was from Arkansas where I鈥檓 from 鈥 now look at how many women are on the podium today,鈥 she said.
For some, the contrasts between the size of the original demonstration and the more modest turnout Saturday were bittersweet. 鈥淚 often look back and look over to the reflection pool and the Washington Monument and I see a quarter of a million people 60 years ago and just a trickling now," said Marsha Dean Phelts of Amelia Island, Florida. 鈥淚t was more fired up then. But the things we were asking for and needing, we still need them today.鈥
As speakers delivered messages, they were overshadowed by the sounds of passenger planes taking off from Ronald Reagan 春色直播 Airport. Rugby games were underway along the Mall in close proximity to the Lincoln Memorial while joggers and bikers went about their routines.
Yolanda King, the 15-year-old granddaughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., roused marchers with remarks delivered from the same spot her grandfather gave the 鈥淚 Have A Dream鈥 speech sixty years ago.
鈥淚f I could speak to my grandfather today, I would say I鈥檓 sorry we still have to be here to rededicate ourselves to finishing your work and ultimately realizing your dream,鈥 she said. 鈥淭oday, racism is still with us. Poverty is still with us. And now, gun violence has come for places of worship, our schools and our shopping centers.鈥
From the podium, Sharpton promised more demonstrations to push back against injustices, new and old.
鈥淪ixty years ago Martin Luther King talked about a dream. Sixty years later we鈥檙e the dreamers. The problem is we鈥檙e facing the schemers,鈥 Sharpton said. 鈥淭he dreamers are fighting for voting rights. The schemers are changing voter regulations in states. The dreamers are standing up for women鈥檚 right to choose. The schemers are arguing whether they are going to make you stop at six weeks or 15 weeks."
After the speeches, the crowd marched to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.
Several leaders from groups organizing the march met Friday with Attorney General and Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the civil rights division, to discuss a range of issues, including voting rights, policing and redlining.
Saturday's gathering was a precursor to the actual anniversary of the Aug. 28, 1963 March on Washington. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will on Monday by meeting with organizers of the 1963 gathering. All of King鈥檚 children have been invited to meet with Biden, White House officials said.
Martin Luther King Jr.'s Washington remarks have resounded through decades of push and pull toward progress in civil and human rights. But dark moments followed his speech, too.
Two weeks later in 1963, four Black girls were killed in in Birmingham, Alabama, followed by the kidnapping and murder of three civil rights workers in Neshoba County, Mississippi the following year. The tragedies spurred passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
The voting rights marches from Montgomery to Selma, Alabama, in which marchers were brutally beaten while crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge in what became known as 鈥淏loody Sunday,鈥 forced Congress to adopt the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Speakers warned that King's unfinished dream was in danger of being further whittled away. 鈥淚鈥檓 very concerned about the direction our country is going in," Martin Luther King III said. "And it is because instead of moving forward, it feels as if we鈥檙e moving back. The question is, what are we going to do?鈥
Rosetta Manns-Baugh knew the answer: Keep fighting.
鈥淚 think we have accomplished a lot, but I also think we lost." said Manns-Baugh, who was a Trailways bus counter worker in 1963 when she left her seven children and husband at home in Virginia to come to D.C. Now she's so disillusioned she's stopped singing 鈥淲e Shall Overcome,鈥 the anthem of the civil rights movement.
But even at age 92, she returned to Washington for the 60th anniversary, bringing three generations of her family, all the way down to her 18-month-old grandchild. 鈥淚 think that鈥檚 why we all are here because we do expect the world to get better," Manns-Baugh said. "We can鈥檛 stop working at it that鈥檚 for sure.鈥
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Associated Press journalists Gary Fields, Jacquelyn Martin, Julie Walker and Nicholas Riccardi in Denver contributed to this report.
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