BY IRIS B. HOLTON
Sentinel City Editor
On Wednesday, August 28, 2013, the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the “March On Washington” will culminate with speeches from several people including President Barack Obama. Fifty years ago, people from all walks of life gathered to join the nation’s minority leaders demanding jobs, justice, and equality. On Saturday, hundreds of thousands once again flooded the Lincoln Memorial in celebration of the historic anniversary.
This reporter traveled to Washington, D. C., with the Hillsborough County Branch of the NAACP to attend the event. Hundreds of thousands of people made the pilgrimage to be a part of history.
There was no sense of urgency in the air as the crowds made their way from the Marta to the Lincoln Memorial where speaker after speaker took to the podium. History tells us that the original marchers called for jobs, they called for civil rights, an end to violence, peace, and justice in the courtrooms.
This time, those in attendance called for the end to gun violence that has reached epidemic proportions taking place across America. It seems that the age range of those injured, killed or charged are males under the age of 30.
As I stood listening to the cry to end gun violence, I thought about history. The original “March On Washington” took place on August 28, 1963, the 8th Anniversary of the murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American youth from Chicago, who was visiting his uncle in Money, Mississippi. Till was dragged from the home of his uncle, beaten to death, his body was weighed down and thrown into the Tallahatchie River.
Americans cried for justice and Roy Bryant and his half brother, J. W. Milam were charged with Till’s murder. He was accused of whistling at Carolyn Bryant, a white woman who was married to Roy Bryant. Both were acquitted of the murder by an all-white jury.
Fifty-eight years later, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, parents of Trayvon Martin, addressed the crowd at the Lincoln Memorial. George Zimmerman, 29, a Sanford, Florida, neighborhood watch volunteer, shot and killed their 17-year-old unarmed son on February 26, 2012. Martin was guilty of walking back to his father’s residence in the rain while wearing a hoodie. Zimmerman was also acquitted of the February 26, 2012 murder by an all-white jury.
A comparison of photographs of those gathered around the Reflecting Pool east of the Lincoln Memorial gives the appearance that less people attended the event on Saturday than the original March. However, I believe that there were more in attendance. The photograph of Saturday’s March is misleading because they do not include the people who went ahead to the King Memorial, which didn’t exist 50 years ago. They also do not include the hundreds who gathered on the lawns to avoid the blistering sun.
While Rep. John Lewis is the only surviving member of the original organizers, those in attendance included some who were there 50 years before. The crowd also included people from all nationalities, and all age groups. Some were in wheelchairs, some on crutches, and some walked with canes. One woman, in her 90s was in attendance as well as several small children. The crowd seemed to represent every ethnicity, every age, and every cause.
It was 50 years ago, that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his famous, prolific speech, “I Have A Dream.” Today, this reporter realizes that while many advances have taken place, (including the fact that America’s first African American president is in his second term).
It appears that Dr. King’s dream remains a vision with only portions of it having made the transformation from dream to reality; there still remains much to be done.
