Locals attend historic march
EL CENTRO – As much as El Centro resident Desiree Johnson said she had enjoyed attending the past inaugurations of President Barack Obama, her most recent trip to Washington, D.C. appears to have bested those.
The young activist was among a tight-knit group of five Valley residents who drove across the country to attend on Friday the 57th anniversary of Martin Luther King
Jr.’s historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
This time, the event was billed as the Commitment March: Get Your Knee
Off Our Necks! and even in the midst of the recent deaths of African Americans during encounters with law enforcement, Johnson said the overriding theme of the event was peace and togetherness.
“This one definitely might have been the icing on the cake,” she said.
The eight-day road trip took Johnson and her companions, grandmother Marlene Thomas and fellow activists Amber Greene, Wesley Smith and Amanda Smith, through nine Southwestern and Southern states before
arriving in the nation’s capital.
Much of the itinerary included scheduled stops at places of historic significance to African Americans, such as the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Park in Atlanta, the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma Ala., and the Legacy Museum, also known as the lynching museum, in Montgomery,
Ala.
The inspiration and energy Johnson said she drew from the overall trip further cemented her commitment to seeking out “good trouble,” the type of fearless activism advocated by the late Congressman and civil rights leader John Lewis.
“I definitely came back a different person,” she said.
Speakers at Friday’s event included family members of those who have died during their respective encounters with law enforcement officials whose deadly use of force have led to nationwide protests and unrest in recent months.
As troubling as the deadly trend continues to be, Johnson said other speakers’ urgent messages about the importance of voting had resonated just as much with her and her companions.
“There’s been too much bloodshed, too many tears, too much sacrifice to even get the right to vote,” Johnson said. “It would be in vain if nobody exercised that right.”
The idea for the road trip was initially planted more than a generation ago, when Johnson’s late great-grandmother, Madeline Thomas, made it a point to treat her children to frequent out-ofstate excursions, said Marlene Thomas, Johnson’s grandmother.
Initially, more than a dozen locals expressed interest in attending the 57th anniversary march, but ultimately were not able to for one reason or another, Thomas said.
Though the COVID-19 pandemic put a damper on the cross-country road trip because of the closures of many points of interest, and especially restaurants serving authentic Southern food, being in attendance during the commemorative March on Washington far surpassed everyone’s expectations.
“It’s a whole new world that opens up when you go these events,” Thomas said.
The longtime activist and Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Committee chair said she walked away feeling recharged by the road trip, as well as feeling validated for the advocacy she has performed on behalf of marginalized community members in the Valley.
A sense of pride had also accompanied Thomas throughout the trip, stemming from the ability to chaperone a younger generation of activists, which included the father-daughter Smith duo, members of Black Lives Matter Imperial Valley.
“All of them came away with one common commitment – to be better,” Thomas said.
One valuable lesson Thomas said she gained from the event was a greater appreciation for the some of the tactics the founders of the nation’s civil rights movement employed in the past, such as conceding to a disagreeable proposition.
Though Thomas said she had previously considered such a particular strategy as being overly submissive, and working toward no one’s benefit, Friday’s event speakers convinced her otherwise.
She also said that today’s community activists and supporters should not get hung up on exclusionary labels and identities, and instead should promote unity and common cause.
“What we fight for benefits everybody,” Thomas said. “If it was only going to benefit one group, then the red flags would come up.”