Martin Luther King Jr: Thousands gather on National Mall to mark the March on Washington’s 60th anniversary
Thousands of people came together at the National Mall to remember the 60th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s March on Washington.
But they say that even after all this time, the US is still driven by racial inequality, and King’s dream has not yet come true.
Alphonso David, the leader of the Global Black Economic Forum, said at the march on Saturday: “We have made progress, over the last 60 years, since Dr King led the March on Washington.
“Have we reached the mountaintop? Not by a long shot.”
The event was organised by the Kings’ Drum Major Institute and the Rev Al Sharpton’s National Action Network.
Many leaders fighting for Black civil rights and a diverse group of allies joined together at the same place where around 250,000 people gathered in 1963 for one of the most important demonstrations in US history for fairness and equal rights.
During the event, King made his “I have a dream”, speech, one of the most famous pieces of oratory in history.
Saturday’s event had many differences from the original march. Speakers talked about the rights of LGBTQ and Asian American people, while more women had the chance to speak compared to 1963 when only one woman spoke.
Pamela Mays McDonald from Philadelphia was at the first march when she was a child.
“I was eight years old at the original March and only one woman was allowed to speak – she was from Arkansas where I’m from – now look at how many women are on the podium today,” she said.
Congresswomen Debbie Wasserman Schult (L) and Nikema Williams spoke at the event
For some people, the differences were bittersweet.
Marsha Dean Phelts from Florida said: “I often look back and look over to the reflection pool and the Washington Monument and I see a quarter of a million people 60 years ago and just a trickling now. It was more fired up then. But the things we were asking for and needing, we still need them today.”
As speakers shared their messages, the noise of aeroplanes taking off from Ronald Reagan National Airport could be heard. People were also playing rugby and jogging nearby.
On Friday, Martin Luther King III and his sister, Bernice King, visited their father’s monument in Washington. Bernice said: “I see a man still standing in authority and saying, ‘We’ve still got to get this right’.”
Sacha Baron Cohen also spoke at the March on Washington
Speakers included actor Sacha Baron Cohen and Ambassador Andrew Young, who was an important adviser to King and helped organise the original march. He also served as a congressman, UN ambassador, and mayor of Atlanta. Leaders from the NAACP and the National Urban League were also expected to speak.
Some leaders from the organising groups met with attorney general Merrick Garland and assistant attorney general Kristen Clarke from the civil rights division on Friday. They talked about many issues, like voting rights, policing, and redlining.
Saturday’s gathering leads up to the real anniversary of the March on Washington, which happened on 28 August 1963.
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Rep Steven Horsford stands with members of the Congressional Black Caucus on the podium
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will mark this anniversary on Monday by meeting with people who organised the 1963 march. All of Martin Luther King Jr’s children were invited to meet with Mr Biden too, according to the White House.
For Rev Al Sharpton, founder of the National Action Network, honouring March on Washington anniversaries is a pledge he made to Coretta Scott King, the matriarch of the King family. She introduced him to King III at a march 23 years ago and encouraged them to uphold the legacy.
“Never did I imagine that 23 years later, Martin and I, alongside Arndrea, would lead a march with fewer civil rights protections than in 2000,” Rev Sharpton noted, referring to King III’s wife, Arndrea Waters King.
Donald Trump has said he is considering “taking away” the US citizenship of actress and comedian Rosie O’Donnell, despite a Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits a government from doing so.
In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, the US president said: “Because of the fact that Rosie O’Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship.”
He also labelled O’Donnell, who has moved to Ireland, as a “threat to humanity” and said she should “remain in the wonderful country of Ireland, if they want her”.
O’Donnell responded on Instagram by posting a photograph of Mr Trump with Jeffrey Epstein.
“You are everything that is wrong with America and I’m everything you hate about what’s still right with it,” she wrote in the caption.
“I’m not yours to silence. I never was.”
Rosie O’Donnell moved to Ireland after Donald Trump secured a second term. Pic: AP
O’Donnell moved to Ireland with her 12-year-old son in January after Mr Trump had secured a second term.
She has said she’s in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage and that she would only return to the US “when it is safe for all citizens to have equal rights there in America”.
O’Donnell and the US president have criticised each other publicly for years, in an often-bitter back-and-forth that predates Mr Trump’s move into politics.
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This is just the latest threat by the president to revoke the citizenship of someone he has disagreed with, most recently his former ally Elon Musk.
But the two situations are different as while Musk was born in South Africa, O’Donnell was born in the US and has a constitutional right to American citizenship.
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Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, said the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the fourteenth amendment of the constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship.
“The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born US citizen,” he added.
“In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.”
A farmer who fell from a greenhouse roof during an anti-immigrant raid at a licensed cannabis facility in California this week has died of his injuries.
Jaime Alanis, 57, is the first person to die as a result of Donald Trump’s Immigration Compliance and Enforcement (ICE) raids.
His niece, Yesenia Duran, posted on the fundraising site GoFundMe to say her uncle was his family’s only provider and he had been sending his earnings back to his wife and daughter in Mexico.
The United Food Workers said Mr Alanis had worked on the farm for 10 years.
“These violent and cruel federal actions terrorise American communities, disrupt the American food supply chain, threaten lives and separate families,” the union said in a recent statement on X.
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The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said it executed criminal search warrants at Glass House Farms facilities on Thursday.
Mr Alanis called family to say he was hiding and possibly fleeing agents before he fell around 30ft (9m) from the roof and broke his neck, according to information from family, hospital and government sources.
Agents arrested 200 people suspected of being in the country illegally and identified at least 10 immigrant children on the sites, the DHS said in a statement.
Mr Alanis was not among them, the agency said.
“This man was not in and has not been in CBP (Customs and Border Protection) or ICE custody,” DHS assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin said.
“Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a greenhouse and fell 30ft. CBP immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.”
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Four US citizens were arrested during the incident for allegedly “assaulting or resisting officers”, the DHS said, and authorities were offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of a person suspected of firing a gun at federal agents.
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In a statement, Glass House, a licensed Cannabis grower, said immigration agents had valid warrants. It said workers were detained and it is helping provide them with legal representation.
“Glass House has never knowingly violated applicable hiring practices and does not and has never employed minors,” it added.
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