By Kardal Coleman
Party Chair
Dallas County Democratic Party
Today marks the 60th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom — a clarion call for racial and economic justice in the United States. The march was a pivotal demonstration that helped create the national urgency needed to pass landmark civil rights legislation.
Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech became indelibly ingrained in our national conscience. While King’s involvement was iconic, there were a number of other civil rights and labor activists who were key organizers of the event, including A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, Dorothy Height, and Texas’s own James Farmer, Jr.
This movement for civil rights and economic justice forever changed the fabric of our country and the lives of millions of Americans. Six decades later, we find ourselves at a similar junction in history. Years of concerted attacks on civil rights, voting rights, and economic freedom have threatened to take us back to a time before the great progress made by these leaders and activists.
The Democratic Party is The Party of the People — all people across our county, our state, and our nation. It’s our collective responsibility to carry the generational torch in the struggle for freedom and prosperity, the very promises with which our country was founded. The lives and work of these great leaders inspires and guides us as we fight extremism, hatred, and indifference. We have no other option, it is now our turn to sacrifice and organize to build an America as good as its promise.
