Rev. Al Sharpton leads March on Washington against police brutality
Thousands gathered around the Lincoln Memorial’s steps and later the newer MLK Jr. memorial in Washington, D.C. on Aug. 28. Photo by Hamil R. Harris.
WASHINGTON, D.C.— The corner of 17th street and Constitution Avenue was a crossroads for divided America. If one looked right from the Washington monument one could see the White House where President Trump stood on the South lawn and asked Americans for four more years in office.
But if one looked straight toward the Lincoln Memorial one could see a diverse crowd of peaceful protesters who called out the names of victims of police shootings as the families of George Blake, Breonna Taylor and Jacob Blake spoke.
”We didn't come to start trouble. We came to stop trouble,” said Rev. Al Sharpton, convener of the March on Washington that he said was needed because 57 years after the first march, “We are tired of broken promises.”
In 1963 at the March on Washington, one of the defining moments in U.S. Civil Rights history, Martin Luther King Jr. called for one America. He said he had a dream “when little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.”
But in Kenosha, Wisconsin, that dream was shattered Aug. 23 for Jacob Blake III, a 29-year old father of three who was shot seven times by a local police officer even though he was unarmed.
Ben Crump, who is representing the Blake family, said Blake was "breaking up a fight” when a Kenosha city police officer arrived, followed him around a car where his three children sat, and fired seven bullets into his back and spine.
Blake’s grandfather, Rev. Jacob Blake Sr, who was the pastor of Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church in Evanston Ill. was at the 1963 March and on Friday, his son told Rev. Al Sharpton, “I met you when I was seven but I never wanted to meet you like this.”
During a press conference this week, Jacob Blake II said, “They shot my son seven times, seven times like he didn’t matter.” He then recited the Fatiha in Arabic, which is the first lines of the Quran and part of the Muslim Surah or prayer ritual asking for guidance and mercy from God.
Blake’s mother, Julia Jackson, offered an olive branch to the police officers by saying, “To all of the police officers I am praying for you and your families. To all citizens, my Black and Brown sisters and brothers, I am praying for you.” She too was at the Lincoln Memorial Friday.
The Bishops of the African Methodist Episcopal Church said in a statement:
“The servant leaders of the African Methodist Episcopal Church watched the video of the shooting of Mr. Jacob Blake III, 29 years old, and watched in unholy horror as we heard at least seven shots. Now the family is confirming that Jacob has at least 9 bullets in his body and at this time is paralyzed from the waist down.”
“Sadly, we watched white supremacist police terrorism strike and now must write another ‘call to action’ to remind the nation and the world, that because ‘Black Lives Matter’ this systemic violence against men and women of color must stop immediately.”
Jacob Blake’s shooting in the shadow of the assassinations of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and the recent shooting death by police of Trayford Pellerin in Lafayette, Louisiana have stirred the nation into fresh rounds of protests against police brutality and anti-Black racism.
Protesters gathered around the MLK Jr. memorial. Photo by Hamil R. Harris.
L.A. Clippers Head Coach Doc Rivers sounded off at a press conference in a week where players from the NBA, WNBA, NFL, NHL and Major League Baseball players walked off the job in protest. “We keep loving this country and this country does not love us back,” he said.
On Thursday, the Governor and Lt. Governor of Wisconsin said during a press conference that there is real “pain” across Wisconsin and called for lawmakers to come back to the state capital where Democrats and Republicans could craft a legislative solution.
On Thursday night, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson began his Republican National Convention speech by offering his condolences to the Blake family. The Republican Party presented a number of African American supporters but President Trump never spoke directly to any of the families of the victims of police shootings.
At the White House, Trump made law and order a central theme of his speech Thursday in which he married peaceful protesters to rioters, looters and those who are against the police.
“I have done more in three years for the Black community than Joe Biden has done in 47 years,” Trump said.
But on Friday, Sharpton, Martin Luther King III, and families of police shooting victims joined labor leaders, clergy, activists and civil rights advocates for a “Commitment March” and event called “Get Your Knee Off Our Necks” in reference to George Floyd’s death.
Speakers included the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner and Jacob Blake who spoke to thousands gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial and around the reflecting pool for a peaceful rally and march to the MLK Jr. memorial.
The brother of George Floyd broke down and cried, and the father of Jacob Blake said that in terms of justice, “there is a white system and there is a black system and the black system ain’t doing so well.”
Blake spoke to thousands of many races who were listening, singing and marching.
“I’m tired, I’m tired of looking at cameras and looking at young Black and Brown people suffering,” Jacob Blake II said. “We are going to hold court today on systematic racism, guilty racism against George Floyd, guilty racism against Trayvon Martin, guilty racism against Jacob Blake.”
Most people seemed to be between 20 and 30 and when the event was over, the police officers from the Metropolitan Police and United Park Police spent most of their time helping marchers overcome by the heat. Several drove marchers to shelter.
“We have come today, Black and white and all races and religions and sexual orientations, to say that you may have killed the dreamer but you can’t kill the dream,” Sharpton said. “If we have to march every day, if we have to vote every day, you will get your knee off our neck.”
It is clear that race has become a central theme in this election 57 years after King articulated his dream of a loving, multi-racial community and America saw the election of its first Black president.
Martin Luther King III paid tribute to his father’s memorial. Photo by Hamil R. Harris.
King III beamed as a proud father as 12-year-old Yolanda Rene King said, “My generation has already taken to the streets – peacefully and with masks and social distancing – to protest racism... I want to ask the young people here to join me in pledging that we have only just begun to fight – and that we will be the generation that moves from me to we.”
As King III and his family left his father’s memorial, he said in a brief interview that the rally and March exceeded his expectations. “I am hopeful for a number of reasons,” he said.
Senior contributor Hamil Harris is an Adjunct Professor at the University of Maryland College Park and has been a lecturer at Morgan State University. Harris is minister at the Glenarden Church of Christ and a police chaplain. A longtime reporter at The Washington Post, Harris was on the team of Post reporters that published the series “Being a Black Man.” He also was the reporter on the video project that accompanied the series that won two Emmy Awards, the Casey Medal and the Peabody Award. In addition to writing for ReligionUnplugged, Harris contributes to outlets such as The Washington Post, USA Today, The Christian Chronicle and the Washington Informer.