On 57th anniversary, many points nonetheless the identical
Different civil rights teams additionally supported the trouble, together with with smaller occasions in Atlanta and their very own cities, and the NAACP, on Thursday and Friday, held a digital March on Washington.
Each got here on the heels of the Democratic and Republican nationwide conventions because the nation heads in direction of the November presidential election.
Martin Luther King III, one of many organizers, informed the gang that they have been there to “bear witness, to stay awake, to recollect from the place we’ve come and to fastidiously contemplate the place we’re going.”
In 1963, his father shared his dream, King stated, however “we should always remember the American nightmare of racist violence exemplified when Emmett Until was murdered on this present day in 1955 and the legal justice system did not convict his killers.” Sixty-five years later, he stated there’s nonetheless a “battle for justice,” which incorporates demilitarizing the police, ending mass incarceration and declaring “that Black Lives Matter.”
The march didn’t draw the identical variety of individuals because the 1963 march, due to COVID-19 restrictions, though hundreds nonetheless got here.
The march was a name to motion in opposition to systemic racism, police brutality and the killings of African Individuals by police. Lots of the audio system additionally spoke concerning the pandemic — which has disproportionately affected Black, Latino and poor individuals — together with the upcoming presidential election and voter suppression.
Many, together with Democratic vice-presidential candidate Kamala Harris, additionally referenced the work of the late Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, a civil rights chief, shut King Jr. aide and fierce defender of voting rights. They known as for Congress to go the John Lewis Voting Rights Development Act and the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.
For Lewis, it was the 1955 loss of life of Emmett Until, accused of offending a white lady in Mississippi, that sparked a name to motion, Harris stated Friday. Until, 14, represented to Lewis what Jacob Blake, George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks and others symbolize right this moment, she stated.
Philonise Floyd, brother of George Floyd, speaks on the March on Washington, Friday Aug. 28, 2020, on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. (AP Picture/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
Credit score: Jacquelyn Martin
Credit score: Jacquelyn Martin
Lewis died final month on the age of 80.
“For Congressman Lewis, the brutal homicide of Emmett Until is what shook unfastened the activist inside him,” Harris stated in a video message performed in the course of the occasion. “It was the beginning of a lifelong journey towards service and driving change, the identical journey that numerous younger leaders are constructing on as we converse.”
Although she didn’t converse, the widow of Rayshard Brooks was in attendance, in keeping with her lawyer. Brooks, 27, was killed by an Atlanta police officer in June.
Audio system included U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas; Marc Morial, president of the Nationwide City League, which was one of many sponsors; and Aalayah Eastmond, who survived the 2018 mass taking pictures at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas Excessive College.
The Rev. Jamal Harrison Bryant, senior pastor of New Start Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest, informed the gang that coming collectively to speak concerning the issues isn’t sufficient.
There have to be plans in place and actions to spark change, he stated. Bryant in contrast the taking pictures of Jacob Blake to the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. Blake was shot by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin this week. Blake’s father and the household’s lawyer have stated he’s paralyzed.
”Even once you render us paralyzed, we nonetheless know methods to crawl,” Bryant stated.
Bryant urged the gang to vote in November, even when they need to crawl.
”Black individuals stand up and achieve what you’ll!” he stated.
Demonstrators rally at Lincoln Memorial in the course of the March on Washington, Friday Aug. 28, 2020, on the 57th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech. (AP Picture/Jose Luis Magana)
Credit score: Jose Luis Magana
Credit score: Jose Luis Magana
The households of a number of different Black individuals killed or significantly injured by police or in racial violence have been additionally in attendance.
The mother and father of Ahmaud Arbery, shot and killed in February in a coastal Georgia neighborhood, addressed the gang Friday afternoon, utilizing the time to thank their supporters.
Three males have been charged with homicide within the loss of life of 25-year-old Arbery.
”I’m carrying a really damaged coronary heart but additionally a grateful coronary heart that God selected my son to be part of this big motion,” Wanda Cooper-Jones, Arbery’s mom, stated. “Sadly, we now have most of these tragic occasions far too usually. However I need every of you to please don’t neglect their names.”
Marcus Arbery Sr. stated he nonetheless struggles to simply accept that his son is gone. However he received’t quit the battle for justice.”It’s been a tough street as a result of my boy was lynched by three white males,” he stated. “I can’t imagine it. However I sit again and say my boy’s gone and he’s not coming again.”
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