The march will commemorate a momentous moment in American history. It will also be a commitment to continue many of the same battles: ending police violence, ending systemic racism and guaranteeing access to the ballot box.
“Dad would be very proud of people coming together to stand up against injustice,” King told CNN. “But surely very sad that we are still trying to get justice.”
Adding to the urgency for organizers is the November elections, the cause of which has been marked by a divisive and toxic presidential campaign.
“We are on the way to a resolution, I believe, because consciousness is awakened,” King said. “I do not think these young people will stop. I think they will continue to demand justice.”
Activists demand police reform
The march would be led by families who “know the pain” and know what it’s like to be “neglected,” Sharpton said at the service.
The bill – titled the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020 – would revoke qualified law enforcement immunity, ban no-knock warrants in federal drug cases, ban federal-level chokeholds and set up a national police misconduct register, under other provisions.
That demand for accountability from police is a priority that King said his father would focus on today, if he were still alive.
“Dad essentially wanted to eradicate what he called the triple ailments of poverty, racism and he said ‘militarism,'” King said. “I have kind of turned it into violence: poverty, racism and violence.”
Marchers evoked the spirit of John Lewis
Friday’s march will also honor the late civil rights icon and congressman John Lewis, who spent his life fighting for suffrage.
At 23, Lewis was one of the youngest keynote speakers at original March in 1963. He was also the last surviving speaker.
“We run in the spirit of Dr. King, but also in the spirit of John Lewis to create ‘good issues,'” said Tylik McMillan, the national director of youth and college for Sharpton’s National Action Network (NAN). CNN last week.
NAN also encourages participants to complete the 2020 U.S. Census, register to vote, and sign up for poll workers and monitors.
How the march will go
Protesters will gather at the Lincoln Memorial for the day’s programming before heading to Martin Luther King, Jr.
The application for the march estimates about 100,000 participants, but the National Parks Service said it believes the number will be about half. Local officials also said the turnout would be reversed.
“It’s not a big march that was initially planned, but a sitting event where the number of seats would be limited,” Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser said Monday.
Organizers have insisted the march will comply with health guidelines and local ordinances. Face masks are required to march, and masks, gloves and manual are provided on site.
The Black National Convention will follow
Months before Sharpton announced this year’s rally, the Movement For Black Lives (M4BL) – a coalition of progressive Black organizations – was already working on plans for another meeting: the Black National Convention.
The event was proposed as a space where progressive Black organizers outside the major political parties could engage and discuss policy solutions “without giving up their radical beliefs and values,” said Jessica Byrd, co-founder of M4BL’s Electoral Justice Project.
“Black people have been saying for literally decades that we want a significant place in the national political dialogue, and significantly mean specific public policy solutions that meet the height of the need and the height of the problem,” he said. Byrd CNN. “We still have to have it in this country, on every side.”
M4BL supports various policy positions that are more radical than those currently being demanded by the organizers of Friday’s march. Among them is the Breathe Act, which would buy off federal resources from police and invest them in health care, alternative solutions for community safety and other sectors.
But while there may be some generational differences between the march and the Black National Convention, Byrd said the wrapped-up day of events is a sign of the political moment we are in.
“When Al Sharpton announced the march, we immediately thought, ‘Well, this is going to be the best, blackest political weekend to end this Freedom Summer,'” Byrd told CNN. “And that is a good thing for all of us, and in particular, Black voters.”
Tragedy can be a bridge for change
August 28 also marks a gloomy occasion.
The 14-year-old was abducted in Mississippi in 1955 and brutally murdered after falsely accused of advancing on a White woman.
Confused about the condition of her son’s body when it returned to her, Mamie Till-Mobely demanded that Emmett have an open coffin burial. Tens of thousands witnessed his injuries, and images of Emmett’s swollen and distorted face were published for the world to see.
Decades later, Black people continue to face violence and injustice. The tragedies, past and present, are an ongoing reminder of the change this moment demands, said Till’s cousin Deborah Watts.
“We still have to fight,” Watts said. “We still need to raise our voices, and be very specific about what it is that we want to have changed.”
CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux, Veronica Stracqualursi, Eliott C. McLaughlin and Emanuella Grinberg contributed to this report.
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