“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead See March on Washington Coverage Inside •
C e l e b r a t i n g 4 8 Ye a r s o f S e r v i c e
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Serving More Than 50,000 African American Readers Throughout The Metropolitan Area / Vol. 48, No. 47 Sept. 5 - Sept. 11 2013
Artists Unite!
“The Art of Justice: Honoring and Continuing a Movement for Equality through Artistic Expression” at the Mount Rainier Artist Lofts Gallery in Northeast. Above art, “Profiled” Mixed Media by Larry Poncho Brown. See Story on Page 29.
The March on Washington - The Aftermath By Barrington M. Salmon WI Staff Writer Fifty years ago, more than a 250,000 people came to Washington to be part of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. While many aspects of the freedom part have been addressed, this country has fall-
en woefully short of providing the job black Americans need. While speakers discussed the racial and social progress the country has made last week, many admitted that economically black America has a long way to go to achieve parity. Now as then, black unemployment is twice that of whites,
young blacks are without jobs in percentages approaching and exceeding 50 percent and there remain vast gaps between blacks and whites in wealth, educational achievement health and other social indicators. Further, many of the gains the civil rights movement made beginning in the 1950s and ’60s
are either eroding or are under threat. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled by a 5-4 vote to gut a key section of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. That decision led to a flurry of actions by primarily Southern states to codify new legislation and other measures to suppress the vote of blacks, Latinos, the poor, young peo-
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ple and students, all who voted for President Barack Obama in overwhelming numbers in 2012 Obama spoke about the gains and setbacks during a speech at the “Let Freedom Ring” ceremony on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on the afternoon
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