On August 28, 1963 – eight years after the murder of Emmett Till on August 28, 1955, and three months after the courageous NAACP member Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white man – an estimated 250,000 protestors brought the March on Washington to DC to challenge the denial of civil rights and economic justice to Black Americans.

This march was the largest protest gathering to ever happen up to that day in America’s history. It was the result of anger and organizing, exposure to violence and death and assaults and the revolutionary determination to force change that brought these hundreds of thousands of people to the nation’s capital in overwhelming numbers that not only was an historic demonstration but an action that resulted in historic legal changes in the status of the descendants of the enslaved who once worked for free, in chains to build this rich but unequal America.

Americans must never forget this day. We must remember this day, must learn and study this day and must dedicate ourselves to continuing this movement towards expanding the democracy to which this country is constitutionally bound.

We must never forget those who helped organize – the famous, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rev. Walter Fauntroy, Rev. Ralph Abernathy, Fannie Lou Hamer, Diane Nash, Rosa Parks, Dorothy Height, James Forman, John Lewis and those many whose names we will never know.

Their commitment, courage, dedication and true belief in their power to force change made it happen. And such commitment, courage, dedication and true belief in that power are required of us in the DC Statehood Movement – whether we are those who are destined to be remembered, or not.

As Dr. King said: “If you can’t fly, then run. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk, then crawl. But whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.”  

Let’s keep this movement moving!