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.
GZERO celebrates International Women's Day
On International Women's Day, we’re proud to showcase just a few of the exceptional women we’ve interviewed on “GZERO World with Ian Bremmer,” our weekly program on US public television. The accomplishments of these remarkable women have made them role models globally. Click to watch our interviews with:
- Masih Alinejad, an Iranian journalist and women's rights activist, known for her campaign against the Iranian government
- Jennifer Granholm, the former Governor of Michigan and current US Secretary of Energy
- Alina Polyakova, a political scientist and foreign policy expert
- Nikole Hannah-Jones, a journalist and author who led the 1619 Project
- Jean Lee, a journalist who extensively covered North Korea and currently serves as the director of the Korea Program at the Wilson Center
- Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, a Belarusian politician and human rights activist who challenged the authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko in the 2020 presidential election.
- Phumzile Mlambo Ngcuka, a South African politician and women's rights advocate and former Executive Director of UN Women
- Nancy Mace, the first woman to graduate from The Citadel military college and a Republican congresswoman from South Carolina
- Christine Lagarde, a French lawyer and politician who is currently serving as the President of the European Central Bank
- Maria Ressa, a Filipino-American journalist and CEO of the news website Rappler, known for her coverage of press freedom and the Philippine government's war on drugs
- Kaja Kallas, Estonia's popular centre-right prime minister, who won a sweeping election victory, receiving more personal votes than any politician in the country's history