Fifty-seven years after Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic “I Have a Dream” address at the Lincoln Memorial, a new generation of leaders of the racial justice movement have spoken at the same place and have come to again committed to pursuing King’s vision.
“Less than a year before his assassination, my grandfather.
predicted this moment,” said Yolanda Renee King, daughter of King’s eldest son, Martin Luther King III, who led the day’s part of the speaker. “We just started to fight.”
The Get Your Knee Off Our Necks March – hosted by Reverend Al Sharpton and his National Action Network – comes at a time of nationwide unrest and ongoing protests against black people killed or seriously injured by police. (Sharpton is also a host on MSNBC.)
Speakers at Friday’s march included the father of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old black man who was shot seven times by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin on Sunday, and was paralyzed from the waist down.
“I’m tired of looking at cameras and watching and seeing black and brown people in pain,” said Jacob Blake Sr. “
We don’t take it anymore. I ask everyone to stand up.
Other speakers included the mother of Breonna Taylor, a paramedic who was killed by police at her Louisville home in March, and the brother of George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man who died after asking for help as a than a white police officer. . The officer knelt around his neck in May.
Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mother, urged people on the march to “come together” and vote in November.
People take part in the March on Washington, August 28, 2020, at the Lincoln Memorial.
People participate in the March on Washington on August 28, 2020 at the Lincoln Memorial.Julius Constantine Motal / NBC News
As the crowd chanted Breonna Taylor’s name, Palmer was speechless after thanking those who fought for justice for his daughter. (No charges have been laid against the officers involved in the raid that killed Taylor.)
“I wish George was here to see him now,” said Philonise Floyd, George’s brother.
“That’s why I walk. I walk for George, for Brianna, for Ahmaud, for Jacob, for Pamela Turner, for Michael Brown, Trayvon and whoever has lost their life.
Floyd added that today it “has never been clearer” that changes are needed.
“Everyone here is committed, because they wouldn’t be here for some other reason at the moment,” he said.
Sharpton first proposed the march on June 4 as he delivered the eulogy for George Floyd. The decision to announce the march, after briefly discussing it with Martin Luther King III, was a spur of the moment, Sharpton said.
During his speech, Sharpton explained that one of the motives for the march was to demand accountability from the police through federal legislation.
“A protest without legislation will not lead to change,” he said.
Among his demands was that the GOP majority Senate pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, a bill that aims to combat police brutality, excessive use of force and racial prejudice in the police.
Sharpton went on to criticize President Donald Trump for failing to recognize Jacob Blake, as well as others like Taylor who were killed by police.
Participants participate in the March on Washington at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 2020 in Washington, DC.
Participants take part in the March on Washington at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 2020 in Washington, DC Julius Constantine Motal / NBC News
People participate in the March on Washington August 28, 2020 at the Lincoln Memorial.
People participate in the March on Washington on August 28, 2020 at the Lincoln Memorial.Julius Constantine Motal / NBC News
“How do you speak when this young Jacob is sitting in a hospital and you don’t call him by name?” Sharpton told the crowd that National Action Network organizers recorded an increase of 50,000 people.
After the speeches, protesters marched – socially distant – about half a mile from the Lincoln Memorial to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.
At the end of his speech, Sharpton told the crowd it was time to have a conversation with America.
“We need to have a conversation about your racism, your fanaticism, your hate, how you would put your knees on our necks as we cry for our lives,” said Sharpton.
“We didn’t come here to create problems. We have come to stop the problems.