Reclaim the Dream Rally

[Guest National Action Network]

Saturday, August 28, 2010 | 11:00 a.m. | Dunbar High School | 1301 New Jersey Avenue NW | Washington, DC | Rally and March to the King Memorial

 

Forty-seven years after the historic March on Washington, Reverend Al Sharpton, President of National Action Network and leaders from his over 47 National Action Network chapters across the country, along with heads of progressive organizations, unions and clergy, will lead a mass rally and march in Washington, DC on Saturday, August 28, 2010 to RECLAIM THE DREAM.

 

The rally will start at 11:00 a.m. at Dunbar High School, followed by a march to the King Memorial. Joining NAN will be a cross-section of organizations and principals including, but not limited to: National Action Network (NAN); United States Education Secretary, Arne Duncan, Martin Luther King, III, President, Center for Nonviolent Social Change, Inc.; Ed Schultz, Television and radio show host; Tom Joyner, The Tom Joyner Morning Show & Reach Media; Marc Morial, President of the National Urban League; Benjamin Todd Jealous, President of NAACP; Melanie L. Campbell, President of National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and Convener of the Black Women's Roundtable; representatives from Media Matters, and many other religious groups, labor unions, and organizations. While across town at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial the conservative tea party members and TV host Glenn Beck will attempt to hijack the dream, at the same time civil rights activists will convene at Dunbar High School to shed light upon key issues that have diminished the dream.

 

As we prepare to mark the 47th anniversary of his "I Have a Dream" speech on this date, Glenn Beck and others are expected to push for the expansion of states' rights - the exact antithesis of the civil rights movement and Dr. King's legacy.

 

According to Rev. Al Sharpton and NAN, when we study the intense struggle for civil rights in this nation, we quickly - and rightfully - find ourselves analyzing the life and legacy of the great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We learn of his tireless efforts to achieve equality and justice for all of humanity, as we pass on legends of sit-ins, marches and boycotts to our children. But what we as a collective sometimes forget to impress upon the next generation is the depth to which Dr. King was an advocate the position that the federal government as he knew it was the only effective tool to ensure a unified system of equality in every state.

 

Today, the Tea Party and allied conservatives are trying to break that national stance on justice and, in turn, break the crux of what the civil rights movement symbolized and what Dr. King fought and literally died for. No one day was more important than that day forty-seven years ago when world stood still and heard the dream eloquently spoken by Dr. King. Event participants will Reclaim the Dream on Saturday, August 28th 2010.