We are STILL marching!

 

Visitors walk at Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial after the march to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, Saturday, August 24th

We are STILL marching! Obama tells Americans to keep fighting on the 'battlefield of injustice' as thousands recreate Martin Luther King's Washington march 50 years after his I Have A Dream speech

• Obama addressed the nation at the 'Let Freedom Ring' commemoration in Washington D.C. on Wednesday
• The address reflected on how far the country has come since King's speech on August 28, 1963 - but noted that in terms of economic equality, it still has a long way to go
• Civil-rights leader Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, the only surviving speaker from 1963 event, also spoke, as did Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton and members of the King family
• Thousands of people marched to the Lincoln Memorial on Wednesday morning for 'jobs and justice'
• Countries such as Japan, Nepal and the UK are also marking the day; bells rang across the U.S. at 3pm

By Steve Nolan and Lydia Warren
PUBLISHED: 08:43 GMT, 28 August 2013 | UPDATED: 22:47 GMT, 28 August 2013

President Barack Obama today urged America to continue fighting for the equal nation Martin Luther King Jr. envisioned as he delivered a rousing speech marking 50 years since the activist's iconic 'I Have a Dream' address.

Speaking from beneath the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., the president celebrated how far America has come since Dr King's speech on August 28, 1963, which gave a 'mighty voice to the quiet hopes of millions'. But he said there was still much to be done to honor the lives that were lost during the civil rights movement.

'They did not die in vain,' he said to the crowds gathered below. 'Their victory was great. But we would dishonor those heroes as well to suggest that the work of this nation is somehow complete. The arc of the moral universe may bend towards justice, but it doesn't bend on its own. To secure the gains this country has made requires constant vigilance, not complacency.'

He added that economic inequality - in which black unemployment is nearly twice that of white unemployment - and a country where many citizens still struggle to afford healthcare 'remains our great unfinished business'.

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Passionate: President Barack Obama speaks at the Let Freedom Ring ceremony at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington

Historic: Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. is pictured in 1963 delivering his iconic 'I Have a Dream' speech at the same place Obama stood today

Obama gives impassioned speech to remember MLK's work 

'When we turn not from each other or on each other but towards one another and we find we do not walk alone - that's where courage comes from,' he said. 'And with that courage we can stand together for good jobs and just wages... for the right to healthcare... for the right of every child to get an education that stirs the mind and captures the spirit and prepares them for the world that awaits them.

'America, I know the road will be long but I know we can get there. We will stumble but I know we'll get back up.'

Throughout his speech he mentioned how the nation improved 'because they marched' in 1963, and at the end of his speech he urged people to 'keep marching'.

'No one can match King's brilliance, but the same flame that lit the heart of all who are willing to take a first step for justice, I know that flame remains,' he said.

'That tireless teacher who gets to class early and stays late and dips into her own pocket to buy supplies because she believes that every child is her charge, she's marching.

'That successful businessman who doesn't have to but pays his workers a fair wage and offers a shot to a man, maybe an ex-con, who's down on his luck, he's marching.

'The mother who pours her love into her daughter so she grows up with the confidence to walk through the same doors as anybody's son, she's marching.

'The father who realizes the most important job he'll ever have is raising his boy right, even if he didn't have a father, especially if he didn't have a father at home, he's marching.

Celebration: Obama, First Lady Michelle Obama and former US Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter wave during the Let Freedom Ring Commemoration

Ceremony: Obama watches on as members of Martin Luther King Jr's family ring a bell beneath the Lincoln Memorial during the ceremony

Family: Obama greets Yolanda Renee King, the daughter of Martin Luther King III (right) and Andrea Waters (in red) before Michelle hugs Arndrea, right

Making friends: Little Yolanda Renee King, granddaughter of Martin Luther King Jr., smiles as she meets the president at the end of the speeches

Event: Obama and Michelle Obama clap with former Clinton, Oprah Winfrey and Caroline Kennedy, after the national anthem was played at the ceremony

Joy: Both Carter and Clinton celebrated how far the U.S. has come because of Martin Luther King - but agreed that the country still faces major challenges

Star studded: Oprah Winfrey, who stumped for the president in 2008, looks thrilled as she grasps Obama's hand (left) and Forest Whitaker, another of Oprah's friends, also spoke at the event

Caroline Kennedy also spoke during during the ceremony as she stood beneath an umbrella held by a park service employee

Gripped: US Secretary of State John Kerry (left), Vice President Joseph R. Biden (center) and National Security Adviser Susan Rice listen to Obama's speech 

Clinton speaks on the 50th anniversary of MLK's march

'The battle scarred veterans who devote themselves not only to helping their fellow warriors stand again and walk again and run again but to keep serving their country when they come home, they are marching.

'Everyone who realizes what those glorious patriots knew on that day, that change does not come from Washington but to Washington. The change has always been built on our willingness. We, the people, to take on the mantle of citizenship, you are marching.'

Obama previously said that half a century after the march was a good time to reflect on how far the country has to go, particularly after the Trayvon Martin shooting trial in Florida. The devastated parents and brother of the slain teen also attended the D.C. event on Wednesday.

Although more than 20,000 people are believed to have attended the event, more than 100,000 were expected. The number far dwarfs the 250,000 to one million that took part in the original March on Washington; 200,000 of these then witnessed the 'I Have a Dream' speech.

More...

• Key aide reveals Martin Luther King almost never said 'I have a dream' during speech which changed America
• 'She is not Martin': Controversial daughter of Martin Luther King who OPPOSES gay marriage tries to step out of his shadow on 50th anniversary of 'I Have a Dream Speech'
• #DreamDay: People share their dreams for the 50th anniversary of MLK’s speech

Ahead of Obama's speech, famous faces appeared on the stage, including actor Jamie Foxx, Oprah Winfrey and Rev. Al Sharpton, while Leann Rimes and Natalie Grant gave singing performances.

Crowds: Tens of thousands of spectators watch President Obama speak at the service marking 50 years since the iconic address

Famous speech: Martin Luther King waves to supporters on 28 August 1963 on the Mall in Washington DC during the March on Washington

Moved: President Obama spoke for 30 minutes on Wednesday and urged Americans to continue fighting for the equality of which King spoke

Excitement: People applaud as President Barack Obama arrives to speak at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on Wednesday afternoon

Peter and Paul, from the singing trio Peter, Paul and Mary, took to the stage to sing the Bob Dylan hit 'Blowin' in the Wind,' which they sung in front of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963 - a performance that turned the song into an anthem for interracial relations.

But notably absent from the speakers' stage was the nation's only black senator, Republic Representative Tim Scott of South Carolina.

There were also impassioned addresses from former Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, who commented on America's unfinished business, with Clinton saying: 'A great democracy does not make it harder to vote than buy an assault weapon.'

'It is time to stop complaining and put our shoulders against the stubborn gates holding the American people back,' he said. 'We must push open those stubborn gates... While racial divides persist, the whole American landscape is littered with the dashed hopes of all races.'

President Carter gave thanks to Dr King not for just helping to freeing black people but for 'helping to free all people'.

'He was the greatest leader that my native state - and my native country - has ever produced and I was not excluding presidents and the founding fathers when I said this,' he said. 'There's a tremendous agenda ahead of us and I'm thankful to Martin Luther King that his dream is still alive.'

The former leaders were joined on the stage - where King delivered his speech 50 years ago - by the civil rights activist's closest family members, including his sister, daughter, son and friend, Rep. John Lewis - an original freedom rider who appeared alongside Dr King at his 1963 speech.

Impassioned: Thousands of people gather for a march 'For Jobs and Justice' down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC on Wednesday morning - the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and Martin Luther King Jr's iconic speech

Back then: Martin Luther King Jr., center left with arms raised, marches along Constitution Avenue with other civil rights protestors from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial during the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963

Living on: Students with the Dupont Park Adventist School take part in the march in Washington D.C. on Wednesday

Together: John Mbugua and his son Giovanni Mbugua, 6, (both left)of San Jose, California, and Lavon Johnson and his son Mason Johnson, 2, of Fort Meade Maryland, greet one another while marching with thousands of other people from Capitol Hill

Proud: Joyce Elliotte of Temple Hills, Maryland, joins thousands of people on the march to the Lincoln Memorial during the 'Let Freedom Ring Commemoration and Call to Action'

'We are not going to be discouraged, we are not going to be distracted, we are not going to be defeated,' his sister, Christine King Farris, said of the continued fight for equality.

In his speech to the crowd, Rep. John Lewis shared his memories of the time and the country's progress since.

'When I look out over this diverse crowd, it seems to realize what Martin Luther King preached about,' he said. 'This moment in our history has been a long time coming but a change has come.

'We have come a great distance in this country in the 50 years but we still have a great distance to go before we fulfill the dreeam of Martin Luther King.'

Of Dr King, he added: 'He taught us the way of peace, the way of love, the way of non violence. He taught us to stand up, to speak up, to speak out, to find a way to get in the way... He changed us forever.'

But he added there still remained injustices.

'We must never give up, we must never ever give in, we must keep our eyes on the prize,' he said. 'We are one people, we are one America. We all live in one house... When we finally accept this as true, then we will be able to fulfill Martin Luther King's dream - to live in a community.'

Day of remembrance: The family of slain teenager Trayvon Martin - parents Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin and their son Jahvaris - arrive at the commemoration event in DC

Performance: Trayvon Martin's parents perform with Peter Yarrow, left, and Paul Stookey, right, of the folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary at the Lincoln Memorial

Heartfelt: Singer LeAnn Rimes performs during the 50th anniversary of the 'March on Washington' on Wednesday afternoon

Star power: Actor Jamie Foxx speaks at the Lincoln Memorial on Wednesday afternoon as crowds gather for the 50th Anniversary events

Speaking out: Addressing the crowd on Wednesday, Oprah Winfrey said Martin Luther King forced Americans 'to wake up, look at itself and eventually change'

Sites in nearly every state rang bells at 3 p.m. their time on Wednesday or at 3 p.m. EDT, the hour when King delivered his speech. Commemorations were planned from Washington to the far reaches of Alaska, where participants rang cow bells along with church bells in Juneau.

It was a fitting tribute in reference to King quoting from the patriotic song, 'My Country 'tis of Thee.'

King implored his audience to 'let freedom ring' from the hilltops and mountains of every state in the nation, some of which he cited by name.

'When we allow freedom to ring - when we let it ring from every city and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, Free at last, free at last, great God almighty, we are free at last,' King said.

The speeches on Wednesday came after thousands of people took to the streets in Washington D.C. to march for 'Jobs and Justice'.

In stirring scenes, people from across the country cheered and shook hands as they marched towards the Washington D.C. monument, retracing the steps Dr King and other civil rights activists took during the March on Washington on August 28, 1963 - which also happened to be a Wednesday.

To mark its 50th anniversary, cities across the U.S. remembered Dr King and reiterated his message of economic justice, racial equality and hope.

Family pride: Christine King Farris, Martin Luther King Jr's sister, described how proud she was of her brother's legacy as she took to the stage

Determined: Audience members, left, sing during the benediction, while a woman by the Lincoln Memorial makes her third trip to the march

Starting young: Robby Novak, also known as Kid President, and National Park National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis take the stage at the Lincoln Memorial to speak at the anniversary event

Outspoken: Rev. Al Sharpton told the crowds: 'Just like our mothers and fathers beat Jim Crow, we will beat James Crow Jr. Esq.'

Impassioned: Melanie Campbell, president & CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, was among the early speakers. The bell behind her rang at the 16th St Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama which was bombed 18 days after the March On Washington, killing four young girls 

International commemorations were held at London's Trafalgar Square, as well as in Japan, Switzerland, Nepal and Liberia. London Mayor Boris Johnson has said King's speech resonates around the world and continues to inspire people as one of the great pieces of oratory.

Some of the sites that hosted ceremonies were symbolic, such as the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site in Topeka, Kansas, a monument to the landmark Supreme Court case that outlawed segregated schools in 1954. Bells also rang at Lookout Mountain in Tennessee and Stone Mountain in Georgia, a site with a Confederate memorial that King referenced in his speech.

In Wisconsin, Gov. Scott Walker's office planned to join the commemorations by ringing a 'virtual bell' online. Meanwhile in Baltimore, a performer reenacted King's 'Dream' speech at City Hall.

Although Dr King was shot dead in Memphis, Tennessee, five years after his speech, many believe that Obama's election as the first African-American U.S President was a giant step towards his dream being realized.

Together: People crowd near the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, to take part in a commemorating of the 50th anniversary on the March on Washington

Across the world: A youngster makes a reading after children took part in a 'freedom ring' bell-ringing ceremony in Trafalgar Square, London on Wednesday

History: Children take part in the bell-ringing ceremony in London to mark 50 years since Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his 'I Have A Dream' speech

Together in celebration: People gather as Utah Gov. Herbert leads a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech on the step of the Utah State Capitol

Commemorated: A banner is seen near the tomb of Martin Luther King Jr and his wife Coretta Scott King in Atlanta, Georgia on Wednesday

Remembered: The tomb of the slain civil rights leader and his wife Coretta Scott King is seen in Atlanta, Georgia on the 50th anniversary of his iconic speech

Battling the weather: People carrying umbrellas gather at the National Mall to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Dr King's speech

The march and its effects are credited with helping pass the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965, both of which insured equal rights for all U.S. citizens.

The President himself credits the actions of people like King for the opportunity to become the current incumbent at the White House.

Valerie Jarrett, one of Obama's senior advises, said of the President: 'He stands on the shoulders of Martin Luther King, and the sacrifices that King made that make a President Obama possible are deeply humbling to him,

Education Secretary Arne Duncan said: 'Tomorrow, just like 50 years ago, an African-American man will stand on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and speak about civil rights and justice.

'But afterward, he won't visit the White House. He'll go home to the White House. That's how far this country has come. A black president is a victory that few could have imagined 50 years ago.'

For Obama, the march is a 'seminal event' and part of his generation's 'formative memory.'

A half century after the march, he said, is a good time to reflect on how far the country has come and how far it still has to go, particularly after the Trayvon Martin shooting trial in Florida.

Icon: An Osprey military helicopter flies by the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington on Tuesday morning, hours ahead of the ceremony

Appreciating: Tourists stand in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington on Tuesday as preparations for the event continue outside

High spirits: Audience members sit in the rain as they wait for remembrance of the March on Washington in front of the Lincoln Memorial on Wednesday

Martin Luther King's 1963 interview before March on Washington

A jury's decision to acquit neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman in the 2012 fatal shooting of the unarmed, 17-year-old black teen outraged blacks across the country last month and reignited a nationwide discussion about the state of U.S. race relations.

The response to the verdict also raised expectations for America's black president to say something about the case.

Obama spoke out to help people understand black outrage over the verdict. He spoke about personal experiences from before he became a well-known public figure, such as being followed in department stores and hearing the click of car doors being locked as he walked by.

He said the African-American community was looking at the issue 'through a set of experiences and a history that doesn't go away.'

But the President hasn't often spoken on the subject of race in public - and only done so when it has been necessary.

During his radio interview yesterday, Mr Obama listed a variety of advances in racial equality, including equal rights before the law, an accessible judicial system, thousands of African-American elected officials, African-American chief executives as well as pointing out the doors that the civil rights movement opened for Latinos, women and gays.

'I think he would say it was a glorious thing,' he said.

But Obama noted that King's speech was also about jobs and justice.

50 years on: Obama signals to the crowd today while Dr King is pictured right with the Lincoln Memorial as a backdrop moments before he made his famous speech

Crowds: Thousands gather at the Washington Monument grounds on August 28, 1963 before marching to the Lincoln Memorial

'When it comes to the economy, when it comes to inequality, when it comes to wealth, when it comes to the challenges that inner cities experience, he would say that we have not made as much progress as the civil and social progress that we've made, and that it's not enough just to have a black president, it's not enough just to have a black syndicated radio show host,' Obama said. 

Last night, Michelle Obama saluted one of the march's organizers Whitney Young at a screening for the documentary The Powerbroker: Whitney Young's Fight for Civil Rights.

She called Young, who served as executive director of the National Urban League during the 1960s, one of the 'unsung heroes in our history whose impact we still feel today.'

She said: 'For every Dr. King, there is a Whitney Young or a Roy Wilkins or a Dorothy Height, each of whom played a critical role in the struggle for change. And then there are the millions of Americans, regular folks out there, whose names will never show up in the history books.'

 

'WE MUST HAVE THE COURAGE TO CHANGE': HIGHLIGHTS OF PRESIDENT OBAMA'S ROUSING SPEECH

'We rightly and best remember Dr. King's soaring oratory that day, how he gave mighty voice to the quiet hopes of millions; how he offered a salvation path for oppressed and oppressors alike... But we would do well to recall that day itself also belonged to those ordinary people whose names never appeared in the history books, never got on TV.

'Because they marched, America became more free and more fair - not just for African Americans, but for women and Latinos, Asians and Native Americans; for Catholics, Jews, and Muslims; for gays, for Americans with a disability. America changed for you and for me.
'On the battlefield of justice, men and women without rank or wealth or title or fame would liberate us all in ways that our children now take for granted.

'Medgar Evers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, Martin Luther King Jr. -- they did not die in vain. Their victory was great.

'But we would dishonor those heroes as well to suggest that the work of this nation is somehow complete. The arc of the moral universe may bend towards justice, but it doesn't bend on its own. To secure the gains this country has made requires constant vigilance, not complacency.
And we'll suffer the occasional setback. But we will win these fights
'What King was describing has been the dream of every American. It's what's lured for centuries new arrivals to our shores. And it's along this second dimension -- of economic opportunity, the chance through honest toil to advance one's station in life -- where the goals of 50 years ago have fallen most short.

'Inequality has steadily risen over the decades. Upward mobility has become harder.
'And so as we mark this anniversary, we must remind ourselves that the measure of progress for those who marched 50 years ago was not merely how many blacks could join the ranks of millionaires. It was whether this country would admit all people who are willing to work hard regardless of race into the ranks of a middle-class life.
'To win that battle, to answer that call -- this remains our great unfinished business.
'We can continue down our current path, in which the gears of this great democracy grind to a halt and our children accept a life of lower expectations; where politics is a zero-sum game where a few do very well while struggling families of every race fight over a shrinking economic pie -- that's one path. Or we can have the courage to change.
'When we turn not from each other, or on each other, but towards one another, and we find that we do not walk alone. That's where courage comes from.
'America, I know the road will be long, but I know we can get there. Yes, we will stumble, but I know we'll get back up. That's how a movement happens. That's how history bends. That's how when somebody is faint of heart, somebody else brings them along and says, come on, we're marching.
'And that's the lesson of our past. That's the promise of tomorrow -- that in the face of impossible odds, people who love their country can change it.'

'NOW IS THE TIME TO MAKE PROMISES OF DEMOCRACY' HIGHLIGHTS OF MARTIN LUTHER KING JR'S 1963 SPEECH

'One hundred years [after the Emancipation Proclamation], the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still badly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination... America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked 'insufficient funds.' But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt.
'Now is the time to make the real promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

'There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, 'When will you be satisfied!' ... We are not satisfied, and will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
'This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning. 'My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountain side, let freedom ring.' And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

'When we allow freedom to ring - when we let it ring from every city and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last, Free at last, Great God almighty, We are free at last."

'I say to you today, my friends, though, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

'I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brother- hood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

'I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream... I have a dream that one day in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

'I have a dream today... I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low. The rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2403775/President-Obama-deliver-speech-vision-50-years-Martin-Luther-Kings-famous-address.html#ixzz2dN5u0AKp
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