WASHINGTON – One of the most exciting weekends African Americans in recent Washington history unfolded over the weekend. What better way than to tell the stories through pictures.
President Obama and the first family officially christened the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial on the National Mall on Sunday before hundreds of thousands of MLK admirers in person and millions more through the live feed on news channels across the globe.
The day before, Rev. Al Sharpton and the National Action Network hosted a “Jobs and Justice” attracted several thousand to the ampitheater in front of Washington Monument, a short distance from the MLK Memorial. The likes of comedian Rev. Jesse Jackson, National Urban League president Marc Marial, actor-activist Dick Gregory, and local politicians and dignitaries spoke before they all marched from the Washington Memorial to the MLK site and back.
Just before the Jobs and Justice rally commenced, mostly local politicians and citizens of the Distict of Columbia held a DC Statehood rally and march in their decades-long quest for Congressional representation and to finally be made the country’s 51st state. After the rally, led by current mayor Vincent Young and former mayor Marion Barry, they all marched to the Washington Monument to join the Justice and Jobs rally and march.
It was the confluence of mutually-agreeable events and circumstances that helped the weekend of Oct. 15-16, 2011, become emblazoned in the memories and souls of the participants forever.
Take a look.
Click on the thumbnails to view photos.
–terry shropshire
