Application approved for March on Washington

with a rally at the Lincoln Memorial. Martin Luther King III, son of the late civil rights icon, attorney Benjamin Crump and the families of George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor, are expected to participate in Washington.

Following the commemorative rally, participants in Washington will march to the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in West Potomac Park, next to the National Mall, then disperse.

All participants will be required to wear masks, Sharpton said. Organizers also will provide hand sanitizing stations and conduct temperature checks throughout the event.

“The objective is to put on one platform, in the shadow of Abe Lincoln, the families of people that ... have lost loved ones in unchecked racial bias,” Sharpton said. “On these steps, Dr. King talked about his dream, and the dream is unfulfilled. This is the Exhibit A of that not being fulfilled.”

The revised plan appears to avoid a potentially awkward faceoff with Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser’s government over COVID-19 restrictions in the nation’s capital. In late July, with local infection numbers rising, Bowser ordered that anyone traveling or returning to Washington from a virus hot spot must self-quarantine for 14 days. The list is revised every two weeks and the newest list, released on Aug. 10, classifies 29 states as hot spots.

Bowser, when asked on July 30 about the potential conflict, said government officials had been in contact with march organizers and that Washington would not relax its virus rules for participants.

“They are aware of all the local guidance that would affect their planning,” she said. “If there are people who are coming from jurisdictions that are on that list, they would need to be quarantined.” than 150 Black-led organizations that make up the broader Black Lives Matter movement, will hold its virtual Black National Convention later in the evening. Organizers said their convention will coincide with the unveiling of a new political agenda intended to build on the success of this summer’s BLM-themed protests, which called for the defunding of police departments in favor of investments to health care, education, housing and other social services in Black communities.

Sharpton first announced plans for the commemoration during a June memorial service in Minneapolis for Floyd, the Black man whose death at the hands of police galvanized nationwide protests against police brutality and systemic racism. The march’s theme, Get Your Knee Off Our Necks, is inspired by a refrain from Sharpton’s eulogy for Floyd, who died May 25 after a white police officer held his knee to Floyd’s neck.