15:21 | Washington, ago. 26.
Thousands of people marched this Saturday in the United States capital against racism marking the 60th anniversary of the historic March on Washington, in which the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his acclaimed “I have a dream” speech. a dream).
Six decades later, the civil rights movement remains in force in the face of successive cases of police brutality against African-Americans and attempts by conservatives to erode the electoral participation of the black population.
The demonstration began with a series of parliaments by activists and politicians on the steps of the Abraham Lincoln Memorial, the same place where Luther King delivered his words on August 28, 1963, before going through part of the US capital.
The concentration was headed by the family of Luther King. His eldest son, Martin Luther King III, told the crowd that he was “very concerned” that the United States is “going backwards instead of forwards.”
“We have to defend the right to vote for all. We have to ensure that our women and children are treated equally. We have to end gun violence. Only then can we say one day that we are a great nation,” he claimed.
The protest this Saturday was called by the civil rights organization National Action Network (NAN) not to “commemorate” the 60th anniversary of the famous march, but to “continue searching for the dream” of Luther King.
The protesters criticized the maneuvers in several red states to weigh down the minority vote, making it difficult for example to vote by mail or modifying the electoral map so that the black-majority districts have less weight.
They also lashed out at white supremacist attacks and police violence against African-Americans, three years after the murder of George Flouyd at the hands of white police officers, an event that sparked the largest racial protests in decades.
There were also calls to eradicate poverty, which especially affects the Afro-American population, as well as demands in favor of migrants and the LGTBI collective.
The 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, led by Luther King (1929-1968), is considered one of the most significant demonstrations in American history and a milestone in the fight for racial justice.
The protest, attended by 250,000 people, helped Congress pass the Civil Rights Act in 1964, which prohibited racial segregation, as well as the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which removed obstacles to voting for African-Americans.
At the age of 17 Sharon Smith participated in that demonstration along with other classmates from the institute and today, who is 76, she did not want to miss the 60th anniversary.
“That day was incredible, there were a lot of people. Everyone was there for a reason: we wanted to see a change in the United States. There have been some changes but not all that we need,” this African-American woman, living in Kentucky, explained to EFE.
Wearing a Luther King T-shirt, Smith claimed that “there is still a lot of work to be done” and called for police officers to be “educated and retrained.”
Likewise, he warned of the risks that democracy runs, such as the one that in his opinion represents former President Donald Trump, who tried to “reverse” the elections he lost in 2020.
Hamitlon Brooks, a 24-year-old African-American man from Virginia, also opined that “the threat to democracy is very real” as several states are “passing racist laws against black people with the intention of preventing them from voting.”
“Although the United States is a democracy, that does not mean that there is no room for improvement. Many people are being silenced,” Brooks, a member of the youth organization Generation Vote, told EFE.
US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, the first African-American woman in office, will meet with the family of Luther King on Monday to commemorate the anniversary of the “I have a dream.”
“I have a dream that one day my four children will live in a nation where they are not judged by the color of their skin but by their character,” the reverend said that day, words that continue to stir consciences in the United States and the rest of the world. world.
Luther King, Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was assassinated on April 14, 1968 by a white supremacist in Memphis.
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Published: 8/26/2023
2023-08-26 20:21:56
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