WASHINGTON—On the eve of the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, a few hundred people gathered at the Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., to call for what many consider a civil rights dream unrealized: D.C. statehood.
The Oct. 15 D.C. Full Democracy Freedom Rally and March, organized by the office of Mayor Vincent Gray, brought together D.C. residents, Council Chairman Kwame Brown, D.C. Councilors Marion Barry, Vincent Orange, Yvette Alexander, and Mary Cheh, activist and comedian Dick Gregory, Dr. E. Faye Williams, chair of the National Congress of Black Women, and Ralph Nader.
“In 1965 in a speech in Lafayette Park across from the White House, Dr. King said, Congress has been and I quote, ‘derelict in their duties and sacred responsibility to make justice and freedom for all citizens of the District of Columbia.’ And so my friends, in the spirit of Dr. King’s words, it’s time for us to stand up and tell the nation: We have paid our dues. And then let’s ask the question: When will we in the District of Columbia get a membership card in the United States of America?” said Gray.
The crowd was enthusiastic and alert for the morning rally.
“So if you want statehood today, my brothers and sisters, I’m saying you have to start acting like the people from Occupy D.C. and Occupy Wall Street, and like Dr. King you have to have a sustained march; you have to have sustained action,” said Williams.
Eleanor Holmes Norton, the congressional representative for the District of Columbia, passionately addressed the crowd.
“I now represent citizens, for whom I cannot cast a vote in the Congress of the United States,” said Norton. “This is a fight that is over 200 years old, and it has more to do with politics than anything else.”
The D.C. mayor’s office has established the Office of Neighborhood Engagement (ONE) to give rapid and complete responses to constituent requests, complaints, and questions. This office supplies a direct link between district residents, their mayor, and the government of the District of Columbia.
“The Office Neighborhood in Engagement is there to serve the people. We’ve got to get 601,000 people energized around this movement and they are really going to have a special role in doing that. They connect with people every day,” said Gray.
Local resident Sandy Hassan said she wished more people had attended the rally, but she was pleased with the energy and enthusiasm that those in attendance brought with them. “I think many of us were never really engaged in civics as other citizens around the country, because we just didn’t have a vote, and so we’ve missed out on our opportunity to have a voice in so many things that have happened from wars to other kinds of social issues … and so it’s time. Now’s the time,” said Hassan. She is a staff member in the D.C. Department of Mental Health.
Following the rally, the crowd joined the Rev. Al Sharpton and the National Action Network’s March for Jobs and Justice that brought together partners from labor, education, civil rights, and clergy. The group marched past Freedom Plaza on their way to the base of the Washington Monument. Speakers at the March for Jobs and Justice included Tom Joyner and co-sponsors for the event: Randi Weingarten, the president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), and Lee Saunders, the secretary-treasurer of American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).
Other participants included Richard L. Trumka, event co-chair and president of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), and the Rev. Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson, event co-chair and senior pastor of Grace Baptist Church, and Dennis Van Roekel, chairman of the National Action Network.
