Thousands of people marched against racism in Washington DC on Friday. They did so exactly 57 years after Martin Luther King delivered his historic “I have a dream” speech in the US capital.
On the march to the Washington Monument in the political center of the city, activists and political leaders called for structural change after a long summer of protests that began with the death of black George Floyd during his arrest.
At the location of the march, Pastor and Nobel Prize winner Martin Luther King Jr. his famous “I have a dream” speech in 1963, a turning point in the history of the American civil rights movement. King was known for his peaceful protests and use of civil disobedience.
Politicians, activists and next of kin of King and Floyd spoke to the activists after the march. She stressed the importance of voting in the upcoming presidential election. They also spoke about the connection between LGBT rights, rights of the black community and of people with disabilities.
The Democratic nomination for Vice President Kamala Harris also addressed the public via a pre-recorded video message.
King’s son speaks
“You may have killed the dreamer, but you cannot kill the dream,” Reverend and civil rights leader Al Sharpton said during the march. King was shot outside a motel in 1968.
“In so many ways today, we stand in the symbolic shadow of history. But now we are also making history together,” said Martin Luther King III, son of Martin Luther King Jr.
The march in Washington DC, with several thousand participants, was smaller than the one in 1963, when some quarter of a million people came to the capital. However, in 2020, the district has set quarantine obligations for people from 27 states because of corona.
According to a permit issued by the city on Tuesday before the protest, some 50,000 people would attend the march.
Protests flare up after shooting Blake
Since the death of Floyd, protesters have been protesting across the country against police brutality, which disproportionately affects black people in the US. People all over the world protested in support of the demonstrations.
Protests have recently boiled again after Jacob Blake’s violent arrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Black Blake was shot in the back seven times by a cop. He survived, but his lawyers say he was paralyzed.
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