Tens of thousands of protesters demanding an end to racial injustice and police brutality in the US thronged Washington on Friday, signaling a renewed groundswell of anger gripping the nation following a white officer’s shooting of African-American Jacob Blake.
Crowds flooded the National Mall for a mass march marking the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s historic “I Have a Dream” speech on Aug. 28, 1963.
Friday’s demonstration was dubbed “Get Your Knee Off Our Necks,” in reference to George Floyd, who suffocated beneath the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in May, igniting the most widespread civil unrest in the country in decades.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Al Sharpton, a civil rights advocate who gave a eulogy at Floyd’s funeral, told the crowd that it was time for a “new conversation” with America.
“We need to have a conversation about your racism, about your bigotry, about your hate, about how you would put your knee on our neck while we cry for our lives,” he said.
Often fighting back tears, relatives of Floyd, Blake and Breonna Taylor — a black 26-year-old shot dead by police in her own apartment in March — took turns addressing the sea of people, who repeatedly called out the victims’ names in response.
“Black America, I hold you accountable,” said Blake’s sister, Letetra Widman. “You must stand, you must fight, but not with violence and chaos. With self-love.”
Like his father 57 years ago, Martin Luther King III stood on the Lincoln Memorial steps and urged Americans to keep fighting inequality — and to vote in November at all costs to defeat US President Donald Trump.
“We are taking a step forward on America’s rocky, but righteous journey towards justice,” King, at times wiping sweat from his brow, told a crowd enduring muggy Washington heat.
Martin Luther King Jr’s granddaughter, 12-year-old Yolanda King, also spoke, telling the nation’s youth that they would “be the generation that dismantles systemic racism once and for all.”
“Baby girl, tell your people!” a woman cried out.
Thousands of marchers, among them many families with children, streamed toward the event from dawn, with masks mandatory — but planned temperature checks were abandoned due to long lines.
Several sought shade under elm trees, waving hand fans. Some held signs that read “Racism Sucks!” and “Vote for Change.”
After the speeches, protesters marched toward the nearby Martin Luther King Memorial.
Karisha Harvey, 46 and black, held a poster depicting a weeping Statue of Liberty cradling a crying baby swaddled in a US flag.
“Not coming wasn’t an option,” she told reporters.
Her white friend Cortney Smith, also 46, said: “I’m sick of hearing about a black man getting killed in the street every week.”
After mass protests sparked by Floyd’s death, outrage again swelled since Blake was shot multiple times in the back during a confrontation with police in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Blake survived and is hospitalized, but might never walk again, the 29-year-old’s lawyer said.
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