Recreating Dr. King’s March From Selma In D.C.

By Georgiaree Godfrey 1-19-2013 

WEBN staff photo

It has been almost 50 years since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led the front line of the march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. Today, over one hundred people showed up at the United Negro Fund Building in Washington D.C. to recreate that monumental march of 1965.

Community activist groups and city council members sported flyers and banners as the marched up Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue in Southeast D.C. A small pick-up truck hauled a large speaker that blared Dr. King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech.

Volunteers staked out street corners to encourage participants to register to vote.  The right to vote is a troubling issue for the citizens of the nation’s capital.

City Council hopeful Perry Redd said, “DC is one of the few regions in the country, well actually the only region in the country, where citizens who are American residents don’t have a voting member in Congress, who don’t have the same rights as other Americans.”

Other participants agreed that not having a voting member in Congress has hurt the city.  High unemployment, needs of the incarcerated, and the closing of public schools also are problems that need to be addressed within the nation’s capital.

The march ended at Shepard Park where almost 100 other civil rights supporters shared a sense of community and celebrated the work of Dr. King. Guest speakers and local choirs entertained the activists as they shared stories of concern and triumph in their community.