WASHINGTON — Tens of thousands gathered early Saturday on the nation's "front yard," the National Mall near the Lincoln Memorial, yearning for a bit of that transcendent sense of racial unity heralded on this spot by the Rev. Martin Luther King 50 years ago in his "I Have a Dream" speech.
With a message that the nation's racial tension remains unfinished to this day, aging veterans of the original March on Washington gathered with younger generations, amassing a crowd that in contrast is more female, more Hispanic, more diverse by sexual orientation and far more tech-savvy than 50 years ago.
Rumbling into the city this morning from Asbury, N.J., was 16-year-old Qion Nicholson, whose only knowledge of the original event were things gained from studies. He says now feels like part of an historical addendum.
"I'm grateful to be living in today's era," says Nicholson, of Sayreville. "The (original) march meant so much for our country."
The mood leading up to today's event was a world away from 1963 when 250,000 descended on the city during a violent summer of police dogs and fire hoses unleashed on demonstrators in Birmingham, Ala.. Civil rights leader Medgar Evans was gunned down in front of his family in Jackson, Miss., and President John F. Kennedy attempted to dissuade march organizers from holding the event, fearing violence. Federal troops were amassed outside the city, federal workers sent home and liquor stores closed.
FULL COVERAGE: Civil rights in America
INTERACTIVE: Witnessing the 'Dream'
But today's events are not without recent historical backdrop.
The murder acquittal of George Zimmerman in July in his killing of black teenager Trayvon Martin — whose parents are expected to speak to marchers Saturday — was steeped in allegations of racial profiling of the victim by the man who shot him.
Even more applicable, march organizers say, was the Supreme Court's June ruling eliminating crucial elements of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, evoking the message of equality efforts left undone.
A Pew Research Center poll released this week showed that black Americans are more pessimistic that white Americans about racial progress, with only 26% of African Americans saying that circumstances for blacks have improved in the past five years, down from 39% in 2009. Twenty-one percent said matters have gotten worse.
Many believe the extreme optimism following the election 2008 of the first black president, Barack Obama, has drained away. Others hold to the view that seeds of change allowing a black man to lead the country were sown, in part, on that day in 1963.
Riding the bus from Asbury today was William Griffin, 88, who attended the original March, elbowing his way through the crowd to hear King speak.
"At the time," he says, "you wondered whether it was going to do any good, whether it was going to have any results."
The event he's attending today, however, will look different than the one 50 years ago.
Whereas back then, women — such as Rosa Parks and Dorothy Height — marched down Independence Avenue and men down Pennsylvania Avenue, all participants Saturday will stroll down Independence, passing the new Martin Luther King Memorial.
Before that walk this afternoon, speakers will provide direct, flesh-and-blood connections to the lions of the civil rights struggle a half-century past. Among them, King's oldest living child, Martin Luther King III, 55, and Bernice King, who was six months old the day her father delivered his famous speech on Aug. 28, 1963.
Also speaking will be Myrlie Ever-Williams, the widow of slain civil rights worker Medgar Evers, and family of Emmett Till, whose brutal murder in 1955 at 14 for remarks made to a white woman evoked the worst horrors of racial hatred in the South.
Keynote speakers will be the nation's first, black U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder and the Rev. Al Sharpton.
A march will also be held Wednesday on the true anniversary of the 1963 event with remarks by President Obama and former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter at the Lincoln Memorial.
Kevin Penton contributed to this report.
With a message that the nation's racial tension remains unfinished to this day, aging veterans of the original March on Washington gathered with younger generations, amassing a crowd that in contrast is more female, more Hispanic, more diverse by sexual orientation and far more tech-savvy than 50 years ago.
Rumbling into the city this morning from Asbury, N.J., was 16-year-old Qion Nicholson, whose only knowledge of the original event were things gained from studies. He says now feels like part of an historical addendum.
"I'm grateful to be living in today's era," says Nicholson, of Sayreville. "The (original) march meant so much for our country."
The mood leading up to today's event was a world away from 1963 when 250,000 descended on the city during a violent summer of police dogs and fire hoses unleashed on demonstrators in Birmingham, Ala.. Civil rights leader Medgar Evans was gunned down in front of his family in Jackson, Miss., and President John F. Kennedy attempted to dissuade march organizers from holding the event, fearing violence. Federal troops were amassed outside the city, federal workers sent home and liquor stores closed.
FULL COVERAGE: Civil rights in America
INTERACTIVE: Witnessing the 'Dream'
But today's events are not without recent historical backdrop.
The murder acquittal of George Zimmerman in July in his killing of black teenager Trayvon Martin — whose parents are expected to speak to marchers Saturday — was steeped in allegations of racial profiling of the victim by the man who shot him.
Even more applicable, march organizers say, was the Supreme Court's June ruling eliminating crucial elements of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, evoking the message of equality efforts left undone.
A Pew Research Center poll released this week showed that black Americans are more pessimistic that white Americans about racial progress, with only 26% of African Americans saying that circumstances for blacks have improved in the past five years, down from 39% in 2009. Twenty-one percent said matters have gotten worse.
Many believe the extreme optimism following the election 2008 of the first black president, Barack Obama, has drained away. Others hold to the view that seeds of change allowing a black man to lead the country were sown, in part, on that day in 1963.
Riding the bus from Asbury today was William Griffin, 88, who attended the original March, elbowing his way through the crowd to hear King speak.
"At the time," he says, "you wondered whether it was going to do any good, whether it was going to have any results."
The event he's attending today, however, will look different than the one 50 years ago.
Whereas back then, women — such as Rosa Parks and Dorothy Height — marched down Independence Avenue and men down Pennsylvania Avenue, all participants Saturday will stroll down Independence, passing the new Martin Luther King Memorial.
Before that walk this afternoon, speakers will provide direct, flesh-and-blood connections to the lions of the civil rights struggle a half-century past. Among them, King's oldest living child, Martin Luther King III, 55, and Bernice King, who was six months old the day her father delivered his famous speech on Aug. 28, 1963.
Also speaking will be Myrlie Ever-Williams, the widow of slain civil rights worker Medgar Evers, and family of Emmett Till, whose brutal murder in 1955 at 14 for remarks made to a white woman evoked the worst horrors of racial hatred in the South.
Keynote speakers will be the nation's first, black U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder and the Rev. Al Sharpton.
A march will also be held Wednesday on the true anniversary of the 1963 event with remarks by President Obama and former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter at the Lincoln Memorial.
Kevin Penton contributed to this report.