We have updated our Privacy Policy and Terms of Use for Eurasia Group and its affiliates, including GZERO Media, to clarify the types of data we collect, how we collect it, how we use data and with whom we share data. By using our website you consent to our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy, including the transfer of your personal data to the United States from your country of residence, and our use of cookies described in our Cookie Policy.
{{ subpage.title }}
Activists descend on Washington, DC, to mark the 60th anniversary of MLK's "I have a dream" speech.
The March on Washington, 60 years later
Sixty years ago on Monday, over a quarter of a million people gathered in Washington, DC, for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, a century after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous “I Have a Dream Speech,” galvanizing supporters of the Civil Rights Movement.
The march was initially conceived 20 years prior by labor leader Philip Randolph when African Americans were excluded from the job creation programs under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. By the late 1950s, with the Civil Rights Act stalled in Congress, Dr. King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference were also planning to march on Washington for freedom.
Together, they planned a march to capitalize on the growing grassroots support and outrage over racial inequality in the US. The massive turnout, in conjunction with a decade of other peaceful protests for civil rights, convinced President Lyndon B. Johnson to sign the Civil Rights Act into law in 1964. The following year, he signed the National Voting Rights Act of 1965. Together, these bills outlawed discrimination against people of color and women, effectively ended segregation, and made discriminatory voting practices illegal.
This weekend, thousands gathered in Washington to commemorate the march’s 60th anniversary. The day was filled with speeches from civil rights leaders and activists reminding the nation of its unfinished work on equality. I attended and was struck by how intergenerational but connected the crowd was – alumni of HBCUs were embraced by current students, and older members of Black fraternities and sororities reminisced with new members. Like an echo, the words “go vote” were exchanged in lieu of “goodbye.”
Yolanda King, Dr. King’s 15-year-old granddaughter, told the crowd, “If I could speak to my grandfather today, I would say, I’m sorry we still have to be here to rededicate ourselves to finishing your work and ultimately realizing your dream,” she said. “Today, racism is still with us. Poverty is still with us. And now, gun violence has come for places of worship, our schools, and our shopping centers.”
Leaders of other social movements also gave speeches, from Parkland survivor and March for Our Lives founder David Hogg, to Planned Parenthood CEO Alexis McGill Johnson. In the aftermath of the Supreme Court overturning Affirmative Action and Roe v. Wade, all of the speakers warned that the progress of the civil rights movement could be reversed.
“We’ve come a long way in the 60 years since MLK stood on those steps, " said Albert Williams, a civil rights activist who attended Saturday’s march and the original in 1963, “but black communities throughout the world are still in a state of emergency today.”
GZERO reporter Riley Callanan was on hand this weekend for the commemorative march in Washington, DC.
Harry Belafonte attends the “Sing Your Song” premiere in New York in 2011.
The beloved Harry Belafonte
Born in Harlem in 1927, Harry Belafonte’s voice carried around the world.
You can read about his meteoric rise and his importance in the American civil rights movement here. He died in New York on Tuesday.
My first memory of Belafonte was the song “Day-O,” also known as “The Banana Boat Song.” As a small child, I loved that song. My mother had an album of his music, and I listened to “Day-O” over and over and over and over and over.
Later, I was delighted to see him perform it on TV. The rhythm and melody seemed playful and joyous, and Belafonte’s megawatt smile multiplied the effect. A happy man belting out a happy song.
At some older age, I began to finally listen to and absorb the lyrics.
Work all night on a drink of rum
Daylight come and we want go home
Stack banana 'til the morning come
Daylight come and we want go home
Come Mister tally man, tally me banana
Daylight come and we want go home
Lift six foot, seven foot, eight foot bunch
Daylight come and we want go home
A beautiful bunch of ripe banana
Daylight come and we want go home
Hide the deadly black tarantula
Daylight come and we want go home
Harry Belafonte was a man with an overflow of charisma, grace, beauty, and God-given talent. He was a warrior for justice. Not just for his people, but for all people.
And his was a voice and expression so clear that small children listened to and loved him.
– Willis Sparks
Facebook civil rights audit; TikTok in Hong Kong
Nicholas Thompson, editor-in-chief of WIRED, provides his perspective on technology news:
Will the new audit of Facebook civil rights practices change the way the company operates?
Yes. It came under a lot of pressure from civil rights activists who organized an advertising boycott. And then an internal audit on Facebook's effect on civil rights came out. It was quite critical. Those two things, one after the other, will surely lead to changes at the company.
What is happening with TikTok in Hong Kong?
Well, China passed its oppressive new security law in Hong Kong. All the tech companies are suddenly in a difficult situation. To comply with the law, violating some of your fundamental principles or do you withdraw? Most of them are delaying. TikTok acted quickly but that was an easy choice for them and their parent company, ByteDance, which already owns a TikTok competitor in China.
Is Quibi officially a bust?
Not yet, but they really, really, really need a hit.