‘This dream is still alive’
Protest on anniversary of March on Washington
WASHINGTON – Thousands converged on the nation’s capital Friday, demanding long-lasting change to end systemic racism as the country reels from police killings of Black people this year that have fueled nationwide protests.
Marchers, speakers and organizers spoke about overhauls to law enforcement, expansions of voting rights and the power of voting in November to bring about the change they sought.
Many expressed sorrow and frustration over the deaths of many Black Americans at the hands of police, including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, as well as the shooting last weekend of Jacob Blake.
“I wish George was here to see this right now,” his brother Philonise said, struggling to get the words out from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
Speakers included Martin Luther King III, who called on marchers to “become the heroes of the history we are making,” and Al Sharpton.
“We come today – Black and white and all races and religions and sexual orientations – to say this dream is still alive. You might have killed the dreamer, but you can’t kill the dream because truth crushed to earth shall rise again,” Sharpton said. “Get your knee off our neck. Enough is enough.”
Sharpton organized the Get Your Knee Off Our Necks Commitment March on Washington, along with the National Action Network, marking the 57th anniversary of the historic March on Washington where Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech.
Sharpton announced the march at Floyd’s funeral. Floyd, 46, died on Memorial Day when a white police officer in Minneapolis knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
More protests erupted across the country after graphic video surfaced on social media showing a police officer shooting Blake in the back several times as he was walking to a car in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Many of those in the crowd Friday donned T-shirts with the faces of the late Rep. John Lewis and Floyd on them.
The crowd swelled despite the heat. Some marchers cooled off in the Reflecting Pool in front of the Lincoln Memorial on the 90-degree day. By midafternoon, the march toward the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial had begun.
“It’s all the deaths, it’s every week,” said Virginia Jones-Finley, 63, from Suffolk County, Virginia, about why she came to march. “The people are in there for the long fight, and it’s going to be a long fight.”
Organizers were stringent about COVID-19 protocols, including requiring temperature checks and masks. Handwashing
stations were available.
‘We’re not taking it anymore’
Marchers chanted, “George Floyd” as his brother Philonise addressed the crowd. “This is hard,” he said.
Philonise Floyd said he hoped lawmakers would follow the lead of marchers and enact laws that protect Black people. “I’m marching for George, Breonna, Jacob, Pamela Turner, Michael Brown, Trayvon (Martin) and anybody else who lost their lives to evil.”
Tamika Palmer, Breonna Taylor’s mother, thanked supporters who called for justice in her daughter’s death.
“What we need is change,” Palmer said. “And we are at a point where we can get that change, but we have to stand together, we have to vote.”
Wanda Cooper, Ahmaud Arbery’s mother, led thousands in chanting her son’s name, so he could “hear it in the heavens.”
“My boy been lynched by three white men, and it’s been a hard road for me and my family,” said Arbery’s father, Marcus. “I’m used to my boy calling me every day and telling me he loves me, and sometimes I’ll be like, ‘Wow, he forgot to call me.’ It just ain’t real.”
Jacob Blake Sr., the father of Jacob Blake, said he is fed up with systemic racism, and “we’re not taking it anymore.”
“There are two systems of justice in the United States,” the elder Blake said. “There’s a white system, and there’s a Black system. The Black system ain’t doing so well.”
Family members of Eric Garner, Botham Jean, Joel Acevedo, Oscar Grant, Dontre Hamilton and many more spoke at the rally, many encouraging people to go to the polls in November.
Speakers call on marchers to vote
Several civil rights activists delivered impassioned speeches that echoed from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, calling for the U.S. Senate to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
The House passed both bills, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., refuses to bring them up for a vote.
“The reason why George Floyd laying there with that knee on his neck resonated with so many African Americans is because we have all had a knee on our neck,” Sharpton told USA TODAY in the days leading up to Friday’s march. “What we are saying is that these two laws represent taking some of the knee off, but the systemic racism is going to take more than two laws.”
Sharpton told the crowd he chose to hold the rally at the Lincoln Memorial to honor the march in 1963 but also to highlight the broken promises President Abraham Lincoln made a century before that.
“He promised us full citizenship if we fought to save the Union,” Sharpton said. “We never got the full citizenship. We never got the reparations. We’ve come to Lincoln because you promised, Mr. Lincoln, and the promise has been broken.”
King III demanded “real lasting structural change.”
Black people, King said, have been disproportionately killed and sickened by COVID-19, targeted by voter suppression and police brutality, and lose their jobs at higher rates than white Americans during the pandemic.
To address these disparities, King challenged the crowd to register to vote, join the fight for equality in their communities and peacefully protest. “If you’re looking for a savior, get up and find the mirror,” King said.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris made a virtual appearance in a brief video segment. She encouraged participants to learn from the work of Lewis, who was inspired to pursue a path of justice in the wake of the lynching of Emmett Till, a 14-yearold Chicago boy killed in Mississippi 65 years ago Friday.