2013 March on Washington Is Wake-Up Call

The 2013 March on Washington is a wake-up call that equality for all Americans, especially black Americans, still does not exist even after 150 years.

This Wednesday, President Barack Obama and tens of thousands of Americans will commemorate the March on Washington which occurred in 1963, some 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation that was designed to end slavery in the United States and restore equal rights to black people.

The march in 1963 reflected how many Americans believed and embraced one of the basic tenets of this great democracy that all men are created equal and endowed with the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

On Aug. 28, 1963, men and women, blacks and whites, Latinos and native peoples, Jews and Christians – more than 250,000 in all – came to the Lincoln Memorial to express their frustration that after more than 100 years, black people and poor people were still very oppressed and disenfranchised when it came to job opportunities, equal pay, equal education, even equal access to restaurants, hotels, bathrooms and water fountains. So they came to the nation’s capital in a historic show of force.

Fast forward to 2013 and where are we? Marchers are gathering once again, after another 50 years have passed, to not only remember the March on Washington in 1963 where Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered the seminal "I Have a Dream Speech", but they are gathering there to remind all of America that the work to achieve racial equality if far from done.

Indeed, the realization that people "will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character" still evades us when we look at the growing proliferation of racial profiling when it comes to black and Hispanic Americans.

The civil rights that blacks fought for and won during the 1960s have reaped benefits for women, Latinos and other minorities, the disabled, gays and lesbians and others who may have been routinely discriminated against.

While many people will acknowledge that progress has been made in many symbolic ways – with the election of blacks at every level of government, including the highest office in the land – most black Americans still experience high levels of discrimination in most every aspect of American life, when it comes to jobs, quality education, housing, equal justice under the law, and even the Right to Vote.

But in recent years, there seems to be a steady erosion of the gains made during the 1960s. This is evident with the increase incidents of racism from street corners to college campuses, from racist graffiti to hate crimes that resulted in the loss of innocent lives simply because of the color of their skin.

The recent Supreme Court rulings that threaten Voting Rights and affirmative active measures that will protect equal access to higher education should be cause for major concern.

The 2013 March on Washington is a wake-up call that equality for all Americans, especially black Americans, still does not exist even after 150 years.