March on Washington: thousands arrive for 50th anniversary – as it happened
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March to mark 50 years since 'I have a dream' speech Tens of thousands line the Mall Martin Luther King's 1963 speech preceded Voting Rights Act Marchers campaign for Trayvon Martin and voting reform
Martin Luther King Jr addresses the crowd gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington in 1963. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Martin Luther King Jr addresses the crowd gathered at the Lincoln Memorial for the March on Washington in 1963. Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images Photograph: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
In a capital that supposedly lives and breathes politics, mass demonstrations are surprisingly rare. But the 50th anniversary celebration of the March on Washington, which culminated, in 1963, with Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech, had taken over the city on Saturday, writes Paul Lewis:
There were concerts, exhibitions, seminars, town hall rallies and church services. "This is not the time for nostalgic commemoration," said Martin Luther King III, the oldest son of the civil rights leader. "Nor is this the time for self-congratulatory celebration. The task is not done. The journey is not complete. We can and we must do more."
Attorney general Eric Holder said he and President Obama would not be in office without those who marched.
"They marched in spite of animosity, oppression and brutality because they believed in the greatness of what this nation could become and despaired of the founding promises not kept," he said.
Streets in downtown Washington that would normally be deserted in August, the month of the congressional recess, were thronging with visitors on Saturday, from Mississippi, Alabama, California, Illinois. For $10, they could buy a Martin Luther King T-shirt and a commemorative copy of the 2008 Washington Post reporting Barack Obama's election.
The events will culminate on Wednesday with a religious sermon, at which Obama, the country's first black president, will make a speech from the same spot where King addressed the nation half a century ago. In a sentimental, patriotic country, which often constructs its identity through nostalgia, that will be a poignant moment. Obama, who keeps a framed programme of the original march in the Oval Office, and is perhaps as well known for soaring oratory as King was, has been preparing his speech.
More from Paul Lewis, who has been speaking to Rev Barbara Oliver on the mall. Oliver – seen here in the white t-shirt, with sunglasses on her head – brought her family down from New York. They worship in the Legree Baptist Church, in Harlem.
Rev Barbara Oliver with her family. Photograph: Paul Lewis/The Guardian Photograph: Paul Lewis/The Guardian
Oliver was among the portion if the crowd who are unflinchingly positive today.
"As a child, I didn't appreciate the march. I was ten," she said.
"I didn't know what was going on - just saw it on the black and white TV. Today I just see all the positiveness. There is such a feeling of unity you think change must come. People are more educated than then and the world is a different place."
In the 1960s, who would have thought a black man would be head of state? Look about you and there are black mayors and governors. Discrimination is not as pronounced as it used to be.
One Came By Plane: The March as a Civil Rights Gathering
The man in this photo was Marlon D. Green, the son of a cook who grew up in Jim Crow Arkansas. He was at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in August 1963, having just fought his own six-year Civil Rights battle to obtain employment as a commercial pilot. The Tuskegee Airmen and other pilots trained in the military had been unable to obtain employment as commercial pilots when they left the service. Green was able to use new Civil Rights laws to challenge Continental Airlines in court, which had refused to hire him in 1957 even though (with 9 years of military training) he was the most qualified of a cohort of pilots they interviewed. The case went up to the U.S. Supreme Court, and was decided in Green's favor in April 1963. After many years of unemployment, the publicity for the case quickly brought Green a job offer, flying for the Commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Floyd E. Dominy. Dominy's work often brought my father to Washington, and he was able to stay over on August 28 to attend the March. This photo shows him with his plane in Washington, one week before the March.
Green had fought his fight against Continental alone, aided only by his wife and a small cohort of supporters, including his lawyer who donated much of his time. The experience of attending the March, with 250,000 people, allowed him to experience viscerally the connection of his own painful struggle against discrimination and that of the nation. Marlon Green was my father, and I attended to 20th anniversary March with him in 1983.
Paul Lewis is down on the Mall and has been mingling with the crowd on a sunny Washington day:
John E. Jones, president of the NAACP chapter in Fayette County, Georgia, is a United Airlines pilot (hence the cap).
He said his job as an airline pilot is a credit to King: "his sacrifice is my gain".
"It is about commemorating a dream that was espoused 50 years ago," he said. "But not only that. People still don't understand that racism is still about. I still see some institutions of discrimination that we around when I was growing up.
"America is segregated now by choice, by thoughts, by deeds, rather than by law."
John E. Jones at the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. Photograph: Paul Lewis/The Guardian
Tens of thousands of marchers have kicked off the 50th anniversary commemorations of the March on Washington. Demonstrators are honoring the civil rights progress made since Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I have a Dream" speech while lamenting new attacks on racial and social equality.
In a presidential proclamation Barack Obama said it was "not enough to reflect with pride on the victories of the civil rights movement". "In honor of every man, woman, and child who left footprints on the National Mall, we must make progress in our time" Obama said. "Let us guard against prejudice – whether at the polls or in the workplace, whether on our streets or in our hearts – and let us pledge that, in the words of Dr King, 'we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.'"
Eric Holder, the nation's first black attorney general, thanked those who marched for equal rights in 1963 in a speech at the Mall. Holder said he would not be in office, and Obama would not be president, without them. "They marched in spite of animosity, oppression and brutality because they believed in the greatness of what this nation could become and despaired of the founding promises not kept," he said.
Many speakers at the march cited a recent Supreme Court ruling that effectively erased a key anti-discrimination provision of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Higher unemployment rates among African-Americans – about double that of white Americans – was another issue cited in the build up.
US Attorney General Eric Holder has told the tens-of-thousands strong crowd that he would not have achieved the position if it were not for the March on Washington in 1963.
Speaking before tens of thousands of people on the National Mall, the nation's first black attorney general praised those who faced repression and brutality to march a half century ago. He thanked them for standing up to "racist governments and governors."
Without them, he said, he'd never be the attorney general and Barack Obama would not be president.
Holder said the spirit of the 1963 March on Washington now demands equal rights for gays, Latinos, women and people with disabilities.
Thousands of people line the reflecting pool near the Lincoln Memorial while listening to speakers at the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. Photograph: PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images Photograph: PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images
Paul Lewis reports from the Mall that Congressman John Lewis was given a rousing reception:
The speeches at the Lincoln Memorial have been ongoing now for more than four hours.One of the loudest receptions, just a few minutes ago, was for John Lewis - the only surviving speaker from the original March on Washington.
He gave a roaring speech, punching the air, as he urged the crowd to take action on Voting Rights. After the sacrifices he and other civil rights leaders made in the 60s, he said, "I am not going to stand back and let the Supreme Court take the vote away from us," he said. "The vote is previous, almost sacred. It is the most powerful non-violent tool we have in a democracy and we've got to use it."
Marchers hold signs during the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington August 24, 2013. Photograph: KEVIN LAMARQUE/REUTERS Photograph: KEVIN LAMARQUE/REUTERS
President Barack Obamahas issued a "proclamation" on the 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
On August 28, 1963, hundreds of thousands converged on the National Mall to take part in what the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., called "the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation." Demonstrators filled the landscape – from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, alongside the still waters of the reflecting pool, to the proud base of the Washington Monument. They were men and women; young and old; black, white, Latino, Asian, and Native American – woven together like a great American tapestry, sharing in the dream that our Nation would one day make real the promise of liberty, equality, and justice for all.
The March on Washington capped off a summer of discontent, a time when the clarion call for civil rights was met with imprisonment, bomb threats, and base brutality. Many of the marchers had endured the smack of a billy club or the blast of a fire hose. Yet they chose to respond with nonviolent resistance, with a fierce dignity that stirred our Nation's conscience and paved the way for two major victories of the Civil Rights Movement – the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Today, we remember that the March on Washington was a demonstration for jobs as well as freedom. The coalition that brought about civil rights understood that racial equality and fairness for workers are bound together; when one American gets a raw deal, it jeopardizes justice for everyone. These are lessons we carry forward – that we cannot march alone, that America flourishes best when we acknowledge our common humanity, that our future is linked to the destiny of every soul on earth.
It is not enough to reflect with pride on the victories of the Civil Rights Movement. In honor of every man, woman, and child who left footprints on the National Mall, we must make progress in our time. Let us guard against prejudice – whether at the polls or in the workplace, whether on our streets or in our hearts – and let us pledge that, in the words of Dr. King, "we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."
Despite the fame of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech, you might be hard pushed to find a full version of it online. That is because King himself secured the copyright to his speech in the months after he made it – purportedly in a bid to control the proceeds to support the civil rights movement.
King's family now own the copyright, which will expire in 2038. Dustin Volz tells the story of the speech in the National Journal:
In 1999, the King family sued CBS after the network produced a video documentary that 'used, without authorization, portions of ... King's 'I Have a Dream' speech.' A divided Appellate Court, in reversing a lower court ruling, held that the speech was not a "general publication," despite its huge audience and subsequent historic importance. The speech instead qualified as a "limited publication," the court said, because "distribution to the news media, as opposed to the general public, for the purpose of enabling the reporting of a contemporary newsworthy event, is only a limited publication.
"The ruling was narrow, and CBS and the King estate settled the case before the lower court could reconsider, leaving the copyright of the speech in a somewhat confusing legal situation. A CBS press release dated July 12, 2000, discusses the agreement that allowed the network to 'retain the right to use its footage of the speeches' from the march and license it to others in exchange for an undisclosed contribution to the Martin Luther King, Jr., Center for Nonviolent Social Change.
"In 2009, EMI Publishing cut a deal with the King estate to help ensure that the speech was 'accorded the same protection and same right for compensation as other copyrights.' EMI was sold in 2011 to a consortium headed by Sony. The King Center did not respond to requests for comment.
Here are some extracts from the speech that have been deemed to be censorship proof.
Tens of thousands gathered early Saturday on the nation's "front yard," the National Mall near the Lincoln Memorial, yearning for a bit of that transcendent sense of racial unity heralded on this spot by the Rev. Martin Luther King 50 years ago in his "I Have a Dream" speech, reads the USA Today story on the day so far.
With a message that the nation's racial tension remains unfinished to this day, aging veterans of the original March on Washington gathered with younger generations, amassing a crowd that in contrast is more female, more Hispanic, more diverse by sexual orientation and far more tech-savvy than 50 years ago.
Thousands of people gather at the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington rally on 24 August 2013. Photograph: MICHAEL REYNOLDS/EPA
There is already a huge turnout at the National Mall, with crowds lining the banks of the reflective pool. It is an evocative sight; redolent of the grainy footage of the March on Washington, except in bright colour rather than black and white, writes the Guardian's Paul Lewis:
Estimating the size of the crowds is never easy - the debate over the numbers who attended in the 1963 march still rages today. But I would say there are easily thousands, and possibly tens of thousands of people here. And they've come from across America. I've spoken to people who have traveled from as far away as Mississippi, Chicago, Florida and Seattle.
I think the scale of turnout is significant. The gathering feels less like a formal commemoration, and more like a protest. Time and again, people told me they believed America was still a racist country, only less overtly so. People are carrying placards about voter rights, equal education and, of course, the death of Trayvon Martin, and the acquittal of his killer, George Zimmerman. Both of the 17-year-old's parents - Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton - are here.
Amid the crowd, I found Ted Dean, 75, from Flomaton, Alabama, who attended the march 50 years ago.
"We're fighting the same fights now was as we did 50 years ago. I remember the day well. It was one of the highlights of my life. The whole pool was full people and there was people in the trees. I was trying to raise a young family at that time and for me it was about trying to make the country better.
"This may seem like a voluntary gathering, but for us, it is work. It takes bodies to change things, and this is just a continuation of what we were doing that day. We're here asking for jobs, better healthcare, voter rights, better education. Those were the very same things we were asking for then."
Thousands of people have already gathered at the mall, according to reports. Among those addressing the crowd will be attorney general Eric Holder, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and the family of Trayvon Martin.
Among those beginning to assemble in DC: Christine Quinn, who is bidding to be the Democratic candidate for Mayor of New York.
Whether you took part in a march or a protest or have a family member who did, we want to hear about your connection to the civil rights movement, and what it's meant to your family and friends. And if you're in Washington celebrating the march anniversary, tell us why you're there.
We know that the fight for equal rights in America is ongoing, so we also invite you to submit recent stories of activism.
Up to 100,000 people are expected in Washington DC today to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech and to protest for further action on jobs, voting rights and gun violence.
Demonstrators will march from the National Mall's Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument, passing by the Martin Luther King Memorial in a symbolic event evoking the massive crowds that gathered on the mall to listen to King and others speak on 28 August 1963.
King was among six organizers of the 1963 march, which was part of the US civil rights movement. Congressman John Lewis, who spoke at the event almost 50 years ago, will be among the marchers and will speak to the crowd.
More than 40 groups are participating the march, including Reverend Al Sharpton's National Action Network, the Service Employees International Union, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the American Federation of Teachers.
As well as commemorating King's famous speech, the march aims to call attention to issues affecting America today, including unemployment, voting rights, gun violence, women's rights and immigration reform.
Trayvon Martin, the Florida teenager who died after being shot by George Zimmerman last year, will also be remembered as organisers call for stand-your-ground laws to be repealed and draw attention to racial profiling.
Martin Luther King led 250,000 people to the Lincoln Memorial on 28 August 1963 and delivered his "I have a dream" speech from its steps.
The event helped spur passage of the Civil Rights Act, in 1964, and Voting Rights Act in 1965. King won the Nobel peace prize in 1964. He was assassinated on April 4 1968 at age 39.
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