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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 21, 2013)
August 21, 2013 jdnrtlanò (Obstruer Page ; Opinion articles do not necessarily represent the views o f the Portland Observer. We welcome reader essays, photos and story ideas. Submit to news@portlandobserver.com. Washington Making history again for jobs and justice those like me, who were not yet born - Dr. King's words are etched into our minds as deeply as they are inscribed in stone at the base of his memorial. The preacher's son has taken his right by B enjamin T odd J ealous ful place in the pantheon of na R e m em b er the tional heroes’. March on W ashing We don't need to ton? Aug. 28, 1963. watch a rerun of that Tens o f thousands of fateful day. We need a activists on the N a sequel. tio n a l M all. A On Saturday, Aug. preacher's son from 24, the NAACP is co Atlanta talking about hosting a sequel to the his dream for the March on Washington country. for Jobs and Justice: We don't need a the 2013 M arch on history lesson. Even if we weren't Washington. The march begins at the March itself - even for at 8 a.m., at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Join us. If this year has shown us any thing, it's that the work of the 1963 march is not yet finished. Texas and South Carolina are sprinting forward with voter ID after the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act. African American unemployment has flat lined. Our children are gunned down each and every day in se n sele ss acts o f v io len ce. Trayvon Martin lies in the ground after one such senseless act. At the same time, our culture of civic engagement is experi encing a renaissance. In the past month, hundreds of cities held vigils and rallies to protest the Zimmerman verdict. The nation is having a serious conversation about racial profiling for the first time since 9/11. In North Caro lina, Moral M ondays has grown larger with each passing week. We have the numbers, and we have the capacity for moti vation. The question is whether we will allow ourselves to be motivated. So join us - NAACP, National Action Network, Realizing the Dream and others - on the N a tional Mall on Aug. 24. If you live within two hours of W ash ington, DC, hop in a car or on a bus - or even better, organize a bus. If you live farther away, you are still encouraged to come and be a part of history. The 2013 March on W ashing ton will be a people's movement. It will not be fueled by cash - it will only be energized by your decision to participate. We need you there to help us gain a criti cal mass o f voices, and prove once again that organized people can beat organized money any time. On this 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, we should celebrate our history, but it's more important that we never stop making history. Meet us at the Lincoln M e morial. Join us on Aug. 24. Ben Jealous is president and chief executive ojficer o f the NAACP. 50 Years after Martin Luther King Jr. made History Another march, another dream It was there, at the broad Marian Anderson sang. M ahalia white steps of the Lincoln M e Jackson sang. Finally, it was time morial that the leaders of the for Dr. Martin Luther King to M arch had gathered. Among p re se n t his h isto ric d ream by E lisabeth S tevens them were A. Philip Randolph, speech. It was a time of director of the March and Beginning by describing the terror and trouble. founder of the Brotherhood gathering as "the greatest dem In the years before o f Sleeping Car Porters, onstration for freedom in the and after the his Roy Wilkins - leader of the history of our nation," Dr. King to ric M arch on NAACP, Rabbi Joachim went on to warn against "drink W a sh in g to n fo r P rin z, p resid en t o f the ing from the cup of bitterness Jobs and Freedom American Jewish Council, and hatred." He also warned of Aug. 28, 1963, a Berlin rabbi of the Hitler against allowing "our creative there were repeated and wide era, and W alter Reuther leader protests to degenerate into physi spread acts of violence. In Bir of the United Automobile W ork cal violence." Instead, he ad mingham, Ala., earlier that sum ers. vised "meeting physical force mer, four young black girls died One by one, leaders exhorted with soul force." in a church bombing. Near Phila the listening crowd. Randolph Finally, with his words reso delphia, Miss., less than a year described the gathering as "the nating among the multitudes like later, three Congress of Racial largest demonstration in the his great waves of light, Dr. King Equality civil rights workers: tory of this nation." Reuther pic intoned: "I have a dream.... I M ich ael S ch w ern er, Jam es tured the March as a "great cru have a dream.... I have a dream Chaney and Andrew Goodman sade to mobilize the moral con that my four children .will one were murdered and buried in an science o f America." day live in a nation where they earthen dam. Rabbi Prinz warned, "bigotry will not be judged by the color of Nevertheless, on that hot sum and hatred are not the most ur their skin but by the content of mer day 50 years ago, an esti gent problems," but that "the most th e ir c h a ra c te r. I hav e a mated 250,000 people came to urgent, the most disgraceful, the dream...." W ashington peacefully from all most tragic problem is silence." In the 50 years that have fol over America. They gathered Recalling Nazi Germany, he lowed that march, Dr. King's downtown in the long Mall be added: "A great people, which words have echoed everywhere tw een the C a p ito l and th e had created a great civilization, and inspired multitudes. Today, Potomac River. Around the spire had become a nation o f silent senior citizens who came to the o f the Washington Monument, onlookers. They remained silent march still remember. One re beneath the spreading trees, be in the face of hate, in the face of tired octogenarian now living in side the long, quiet reflecting brutality, in the face of mass Florida insists: "It was one of the pool, and as close as they could murder. America must not be most important experiences of get to the great, marble-columned come a nation o f silent onlook my life." memorial containing the statue ers...." But beyond dreams, what is o f A b ra h am L in c o ln , th ey B e fo re an d b e tw e e n the the reality? What can and should waited. sp eech es th ere w as m usic. be celebrated by the 50th anni versary March on W ashington on Aug. 28, 2013? On the Mall, not far from the Lincoln M emorial, there is a much-visited granite memorial to Dr. King dedicated in 2011. Yet elsewhere, in places such as Stamford, Fla., and Chicago, vio lence continues. The tragic kill ings of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in Stamford and of 15- year-old Hadiya Pendelton in Chicago engender painful ques tions. How can the "soul force" Dr. King recommended as an alter native to "physical violence" be engendered, em ployed, p ro moted? If there are answers, who has them? Am idst contem porary pain and confusion, the dreams o f Dr. King linger and inspire. To have a dream and work for it may be the only answer. Elisabeth Stevens is the au thor o f Ride a Bright and Shin ing Pony, the story o f two young lovers whose lives and destinies are irrevocably and tragically intertwined with the 1963 March on Washington. THE LAW OFFICES OF Patrick John Sweeney, P.C Patrick John Sweeney Attorney at Law 1549 SE Ladd Portland, Oregon Portland: Hillsoboro: Facsimile: Email: (503) 244-2080 (503) 244-2081 (503) 244-2084 Sweeney@PDXLawyer.com Advertise with diversity in [K Portland Observer Call 503-288-0033 ads@ portlandob scrver.com