On Saturday thousands marched to the Martin Luther King memorial and down the National Mall to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the historic March on Washington.

But it was more than a trip down memory lane; the event was also meant to galvanize a new generation to take action to make a better world for all marginalized and oppressed communities.

Remarks from Rep. John Lewis – a featured speaker at the original March on Washington – spoke directly to this continued struggled for justice and equality.

From the Huffington Post:

Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., the only surviving speaker from the 1963 March on Washington, railed against a recent Supreme Court decision that effectively erased a key anti-discrimination provision of the Voting Rights Act. Lewis was a leader of a 1965 march, where police beat and gassed marchers who demanded access to voting booths.

“I gave a little blood on that bridge in Selma, Ala., for the right to vote,” he said. “I am not going to stand by and let the Supreme Court take the right to vote away from us. You cannot stand by. You cannot sit down. You’ve got to stand up. Speak up, speak out and get in the way.”

Organizers expected about 100,000 people to participate in the event, the precursor to the actual anniversary of the Aug. 28, 1963, march that drew some 250,000 to the National Mall and ushered in the idea of massive, nonviolent demonstrations.

Read more at the Huffington Post

 

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