Rallying for Change

By AMITY PAYE
Special to the AmNews

“In 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. stood on the steps of this memorial and declared that this nation should come together and embrace its greater ideals,” said singer, actor, humanitarian, Harry Belafonte in a speech during Saturday’s One Nation Working Together rally. “He said that we should rally together and overcome injustice and racism and that all citizens should not only have the right to vote, but that we should exercise that right and make America whole.”

An excerpt from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech was also read, reinforcing the desire to emulate the influential civil rights marches. As an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 teachers, health care workers, students, environmentalists, religious officials and union members from across the nation descended on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., they saw this rally as a the realization of King’s dream.

One Nation united

By HERB BOYD
Special to the AmNews

The 83-year-old Harry Belafonte spoke of Martin Luther King Jr.’s opposition to the Vietnam War and reminded the crowd of Dr. King’s words, saying, “America would soon come to realize that the war that we were in at that time, that this nation waged in Vietnam, was not only unconscionable, but unwinnable.”

With a voice strained yet strong, Belafonte declared, “Now today, almost a half-century later as we gather at this place where Dr. King prayed for the soul of this nation, tens of thousands of citizens from all walks of life have come here today to rekindle his dream and once again hope that all America will soon come to the realization that the wars that we wage today in faraway lands are immoral, unconscionable and unwinnable.”