Passing the torch

 

Jonathan Capehart of the Washington Post passes along a letter from some of the surviving luminaries of the 1963 March on Washington to the leaders of today's Get Your Knee Off My Neck March on the capitol mall. Here's a long excerpt:

We in the Black Freedom Movement of the 1950s and 1960s held countless mass meetings in churches and community halls in Black communities throughout the Jim Crow South. On August 28, 1963, for the first and only time, we gathered before the Lincoln Memorial for a mass meeting on a national scale, joined and witnessed by the entire country. We called this mass meeting “The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom”. 

We feel obligated to accurately recall the true story of our nonviolent movement to transform our country. We affirm the direct lineage from the Black Freedom Movement of the 20th century, in which we were immersed, and the Black Lives Matter Movement and renewed Poor People’s Campaign of the 21st century which we profoundly admire, and wholeheartedly endorse and support. 

For decades America portrayed the 1963 March on Washington as a symbolic apotheosis of peaceful social change, racial harmony and reconciliation. Yes, the March was a uniquely powerful demonstration of the struggle for racial justice. But this struggle continues, as systemic racial injustice persists 

... On August 28, 1963, we marched to demand enforcement of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution by reducing congressional representation from States that disenfranchise citizens. We renew the demand that our Constitution be enforced in the face of widespread voter suppression today. ... 

... Before Dr. King shared his dream of the future, John Lewis demanded that we wake up to the national nightmare of the present. “We must say: ‘Wake up America!'" 

... We applaud and support the urgent work of next generation voting rights defenders and organizers including the M4BL Electoral Justice Project, the Black Voters Matter Fund, and the student activists of the Andrew Goodman Foundation. Together these young leaders are fighting to secure our Constitutional rights and mobilize the vote in Black and other communities of color throughout the United States. We honor them, support them, and follow them. ... 

Today, in 2020, the killings of Tanisha Anderson, Ahmaud Arbery, Philando Castile, Dominique Clayton, George Floyd, Eric Garner, Botham Jean, Atatiana Jefferson, Eric Reason, Breonna Taylor and countless others demonstrate the tragic reality that Black Americans remain the victim of unspeakable horrors of police brutality. When will it stop? 

... Even at the height of the coronavirus pandemic, young BLM leaders achieved results far beyond what Dr. King and the civil rights movement of the 1960s were able to accomplish: bringing somewhere between 15 million to 26 million Americans of all races and generations into the streets for the largest nonviolent protest movement in the history of the United States. 

With admiration and gratitude, we pass [Reverend Martin Luther King's] torch to the activist youth in the Black Lives Matter, March for our Lives, and climate justice movements. 

We know that their marvelous new nonviolent militancy will lead us to the Promised Land. 

Our obligation on this day is to follow their leadership. 

We urge all Americans to join our courageous nonviolent young activists in the hard work of building a just and free society in which we shall overcome.

In this strange year in which a couple of old white men compete for the presidency (and who wins matters desperately), would that all of us from these elder's generation could find it in our hearts to look for leadership in our movement successors. Who could not be thrilled by the intellectual and physical audacity of today's leaders? It's their time.