Why We Must March On...

Fifty years ago the great march on Washington took place for many reasons; jobs, desegregation, fair pay, voting rights but most of all for Freedom.  Freedom was the root to getting all other request heard and addressed accordingly. Collectively a community of people came from all parts of America to join in or to witness this historical event that still has some residual effects on the world today. So why not simply remember this historical day? Why not look at the past 50 years and say we have come a long way, or simply “We’ve come this far by faith?” Why must we march?

Why, because we still have much work to do! In the life and ministry of Dr. King and his most famous speech “I Have a Dream”, we see how a man came to fulfill a mission and died for that very calling. A man who understood his very purpose in life and through his life gave many a chance to live in a world today that was none like the one he lived 50 years ago. We hear in his speech the power and the urgency of making this dream a reality. But most of all we see part of the dream becoming a reality; where today we are able to witness two term of a black family living in the white house and a black man in the oval office influencing the entire world. We see that his dream was prophetic and it has manifested in our lifetime.

This is no different from the life of Ghandi, Garvey, Malcolm, and yes, Jesus— individuals who understood that self-sacrifice was the greatest of all sacrifices in order to give hope and ensure a life for those who would come after; individuals who were not concern about the temporary NOW state, yet understood the act of Now would guarantee a more permanent and hopeful future; individuals who understood that the only way to save lives is to give up their own lives for the fight, for the struggle, for the people.

Our Marching 50 years later are still for all the various reason our elders and ancestor march and much more. We march to say that we have not forgotten. We march to show our gratitude. We march for our children and our children’s children. We march for the injustices that continue to plague our community today. We march for Treyvon, Oscar, and Emmet. We still march… we must march for freedom!

By marching this upcoming 50^th anniversary of the March of Washington we are saying, just as Martin said that we too have dreams as individuals and communal front. We want are dreams to be heard and we are willing to make sacrifices to ensure that are dreams come true. So we continue to march until this victory is won.