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Tears streamed down Brooke Moreland’s face as she watched tens of thousands gather on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in the US to condemn systemic racism and demand racial justice in the wake of several police killings of black Americans.
But for the Indianapolis mother of three, the fiery speeches delivered Friday at the commemoration of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom also gave way to a central message: Vote and demand a change at the polls in November. .
Jacquelyn Martin / AP
Walter Carter, 74, of Woodbridge, Virginia, who attended the original March on Washington, attends the 2020 March on Washington, Friday, Aug.28, 2020, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, on the 57th anniversary of the Reverend Martin Luther King. Jr. “I have a dream.”
“As black people, many people who look like us died so that we could sit in public, vote, go to school and be able to walk freely and live our lives,” the 31-year-old newspaper said. said old Moreland.
“Every election is an opportunity, so how dare we not vote after our ancestors fought for us to be here?”
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That determination could prove critical in a presidential election where race looms as a flash point.
President Donald Trump, at the Republican National Convention last week, emphasized a message of “law and order” directed at his mostly white base of supporters.
His Democratic rival, Joe Biden, has expressed empathy with the black victims of police brutality and is counting on strong participation from African Americans to win critical states like North Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania and Michigan.
As the campaign enters its final stages, there is an increasing effort among African Americans to transform frustration at police brutality, systemic racism, and the disproportionate number of the coronavirus into political power.
Organizers and participants said Friday’s march was a much-needed rallying cry to mobilize.
“If we do not vote in numbers that we have never seen before and allow this administration to continue what it is doing, we are headed for serious destruction,” Martin Luther King III told The Associated Press before his mobilization. comments, delivered 57 years after his father’s famous “I have a dream” speech.
José Luis Magana / AP
Protesters gather at the Lincoln Memorial during the march in Washington, Friday, Aug. 28, 2020, on the 57th anniversary of the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.
“I am going to do everything I can to encourage, promote, mobilize and what is at stake is the future of our nation, our planet. What is at stake is the future of our children ”.
When speakers implored attendees to “vote as if our lives depended on it,” the march came on the heels of another shooting by a white police officer of a black man: Jacob Blake, 29, in Kenosha , Wisconsin, last Sunday. – causing demonstrations and violence that left two people dead.
“We need a new conversation … you act like shooting us in the back is not a problem,” Reverend Al Sharpton said.
“Our vote is drenched in blood. We are going to vote for a nation that stops the George Floyd, that stops the Breonna Taylors. “
Navy veteran Alonzo Jones-Goss, who traveled to Washington from Boston, said he plans to vote for Biden because the nation has seen too many tragic events that have claimed the lives of African Americans and other people of color.
“I supported and defended the Constitution and I support the members who continue to do so today, but the injustice and the people who are losing their lives, that must end,” said Jones-Goss, 28.
“It has been 57 years since Dr. King stood there and gave his speech. But the unfortunate thing is that what was happening 57 years ago continues to happen today ”.
Drawing comparisons to the original 1963 march, where participants were protesting many of the same problems they have suffered, National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial said it is clear why this year’s elections will be pivotal. for African Americans.
“Our goal is to remind and educate people about how important it is to translate the power of protest into the power of politics and public policy change,” said Morial, who spoke Friday.
“So we want to be deliberate about how to make the connection between protesting and voting.”
Nadia Brown, a professor of political science at Purdue University, agreed that there are similarities between the 1963 situation and the issues that resonate with African Americans today.
He said the political pressure that was applied led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and other powerful laws that transformed the lives of African Americans. He is hopeful that this will happen again in November and beyond.
“There are already a lot of organizations that are mobilizing in the face of overwhelming things,” Brown said.
“But these same groups that are more marginalized are saying that it is not enough to vote, it is not enough for the Democratic Party or the Republican Party to ask me for my vote.
“I am going to hold accountable these elected officials who are in office now and I am going to vote in November and hold those same people accountable. And for me, that’s the most uplifting and rewarding part – seeing those kinds of similarities. “
But Brown noted that while Friday’s march resonated with many, it’s unclear if it will translate into action among younger voters, whose lack of enthusiasm could become a vulnerability for Biden.
“I think there is already an impulse among young people who say no in my United States, that this is not the place where they want to live, but will this turn into electoral gains?
“That’s less clear to me because a lot of the poll numbers show that young people, millennials and Gen Z are overwhelmingly more progressive and reluctantly turning to this pragmatic side of politics.” Brown said.
That was clear as the Movement for Black Lives also marked its own historic event on Friday: a virtual National Black Convention that featured several speakers discussing pressing issues such as climate change, economic empowerment, and the need for electoral justice.
“I don’t necessarily see elections as an achievement of justice per se because I consider the existing system itself to be fundamentally unfair in many ways and it is the existing system that we are fundamentally trying to transform,” said Bree Newsome Bass, activist and civil rights organizer, during the electoral justice convention panel.
“I think voting and recognizing what elections should be is a way to exercise that muscle.”
