The 60th anniversary March on Washington

(TriceEdneyWire.com) – Sixty years after the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Rev. Al Sharpton, Martin Luther King III and leaders of 60 different organizations will gather again at the Lincoln Memorial to finish the work that civil rights started decades ago.

A coalition reaching across generations and races planned to reignite the “Dream,” that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. articulated on Aug. 28, 1963.

Leaders from all walks of life are working together for a cause bigger than themselves, according to Sharpton, president of the National Action Network, who said that Aug. 26 will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reaffirm our collective commitment to the fight for equality and justice.

The program will begin at 8 a.m. and conclude at 1 p.m. when MLK III, Sharpton, and more than a dozen co-chairs of an event at the Lincoln Memorial will conclude several days of activities.

The program will include performances, an interfaith ecumenical prayer service with national clergy, and speakers from civil rights, voting rights, gun violence, labor, youth and other organizations.

“Despite the significant progress we have made over these six decades, we need to rededicate ourselves to the mission my dad gave his life for,” said MLK III, chairman of the Drum Major Institute.

Melanie Campbell, president and CEO of the National Coalition of Voter Participation said that the event will conclude a week of activism in the nation’s capital.

“Many groups like the SCLC, the National Black Women’s Roundtable will be meeting and it’s important that the veterans of the 1963 March meet a new generation of leaders,” Campbell said in an interview. “This is an opportunity to use a historic moment to focus on the issues of today.”

Accommodations will be available for people with disabilities on a first-come, first-served basis. Volunteers will have yellow neon vests and be on golf carts with ADA Shuttle near the bus parking areas designated with signs on each cart.

People at the Lincoln Memorial grounds who need more information about accessing an area to rest, please contact a volunteer with a yellow neon vest and volunteer badge for more information.

Organizers ask that people be dropped as close as possible, considering road closures will occur. Securing a carshare ride after the march has been difficult in previous years. Please plan accordingly.

At the program’s close, march lineup instructions will be announced from the stage and all marching speakers and special guests will join the march lineup. Attendees not marching should remain in place or depart from the Memorial once the program concludes.

The marchers will line up on Lincoln Circle NW and proceed South on 23rd Street. crossing through the median onto the Southern portion of Independence Avenue. and concluding at West Potomac Park.

“Moments like these are crucial to keeping our mission alive across generations and around the country,” said Sharpton who made a special appeal for people to come to D.C. last Saturday. “When so many of our hard-fought civil rights gains are under renewed threat, our march will demonstrate a unified front against the vitriol, rise in hate crimes, regressive laws and threats to democracy itself that are permeating society.”