WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — Thousands of people braved the heat and a pandemic to take part in a March on Washington for racial justice on Friday. Some participants drove for hours from southern states to be there.
“We’re here for the movement,” Julian Arrington said.
Arrington and Shaunteera Hamby drove more than 10 hours from Birmingham, Alabama to march against police brutality and racial injustice in the nation’s capital.
Hamby said the demonstration had an even greater purpose after what happened in Wisconsin this week, when Jacob Blake was shot seven times in the back by a police officer.
“It lets you know that it’s not over, it’s just beginning,” Hamby said.
Arrington and Hamby were joined by thousands of others fed up with inequality.
It was a feeling shared in the same spot 57 years ago.
“Last time I was here, I was only 11 years old,” Shelia Mebane, from Washington D.C. said.
Mebane was here in 1963 for the very first March on Washington when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have A Dream” speech.
This year, she joined her family from Georgia for their first time.
“I think we have to continue to march consistently,” Mebane said.
People in Washington told D.C. Correspondent Kellie Meyer it’s not just about recreating history, it’s about making history for generations to come.
“Everyone needs to know that it’s important for us to vote,” Denene Green said.
Green came from Atlanta to highlight the life of longtime Georgia Congressman John Lewis, who spent his life fighting for racial equality.
“To be able to be here on his behalf – we stand on his shoulders, continue to fight for good trouble,” she added.
Green and her family said they’re not going to stop marching until there’s change.
“There’s so many things in America that we can do better. It will take just one step at a time but we at least have to take that first step,” Green said.
