2020 March on Washington, led by the Rev Al Sharpton, is today, the 57th anniversary of the historic 1963 March on Washington led by MLK....Watch King's historic "I Have A Dream Speech" here....By editor Kathy Wray Coleman of Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio

                                                            1963 March On Washington

       

                                      MLK'S historic "I Have A Dream" speech

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.

By Kathy Wray Coleman, associate publisher, editor in chief. Coleman trained for 17 years as a reporter with the Call and Post Newspaper and is an investigative and political reporter with a background in legal and scientific reporting. She is also a former 15-year public school biology teacher.

                                                The Rev. Al Sharpton

WASHINGTON, D.C.-The Rev Al Sharpton will lead a Civil Rights rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C on Friday, Aug. 28 in remembrance of the Rev. Martin Luther King's historic "I Have A Dream Speech" and the legendary 1963 March on Washington that King led in the same spot 57 years ago.  

Following the rally, participants will march from the Lincoln Memorial to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial.

King's eldest son, Martin Luther King III, and family members of Blacks erroneously killed by police are among the many speakers for the anniversary gathering, the rally and march the culmination of week-long events in the city spearheaded by Sharpton and his New York-based National Action Network.

Family members of Jacob Blake, George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner and Breonna Taylor, all of them but Blake killed by police in their respective cities, are among those who have lost loved one's to police violence who will speak, Sharpton has said.

Also known as The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, or The Great March on Washington, the original march  drew some 250,000 people to the National Mall in the nation's capital and was held on Wed, Aug. 28, 1963. 

It was to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African- Americans, that same theme the impetus for Friday's march that organizers say is expected to draw thousands to D.C. from cities across the country.

Activists also want public policy changes and legislation relative to policing, and criminal justice reforms across the board. 

Today's March on Washington is hampered by a coronavirus pandemic that is sweeping the world, the U.S. leading in both confirmed cases and deaths as more than 180,000 Americans have died from the disease since it hit with a vengeance in mid-March.  

It comes as racial tensions escalate behind the celebrated shooting last week by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin of the 29-year-old Blake, and police killings of Floyd in  Minneapolis in May of this year and the 26-year old Taylor in March, Taylor gunned down in her apartment by Louisville Metro police and shot eight times.

Rev Sharpton, also an MSNBC political commentator and former presidential candidate, tweeted that the march is a "Get Your Knee Off Our Necks March on Washington," referencing the White Minneapolis cop, Derek Chauvin, who held his knee on the unarmed George Floyd's neck during an arrest until he killed him, riots later breaking out in the city and nationwide.

Chauvin was later fired and faces charges of second degree murder and manslaughter, three other non-Black officers at the scene who did nothing also fired, and facing charges of aiding and abetting.

Other high profile killings in recent years that will be addressed at Friday's event in D.C. are Michael Brown and 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014, Brown gunned down by police in Ferguson, Missouri, and Rice shot and killed by Cleveland police at a park and recreation center on the city's largely White west side, and the death of Sandra Bland, a 28-year-old community activist who was found hanged in a jail cell in Waller County, Texas in 2015.

Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, the most read Black digital newspaper in Ohio and in the Midwest. Tel: (216) 659-0473. Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview. CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.