Fencing and construction workers greet visitors to the Lincoln Memorial, signaling that — for the moment — the monument to the nation’s 16th president is a work in progress.
And so is the nation Abraham Lincoln saved and the dream that Martin Luther King Jr. envisioned at its steps nearly 60 years ago at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Miller, who was on a vacation Bible school field trip with People’s Congregational United Church of Christ, said she reflects on that day and believes much of what King spoke of has come to pass, but there are still battles. “We're still trying to integrate into a society that did not accept us in the beginning.”
Babbs said his hope is that people will judge one another by their character and that is achieved through communication. “Once we get to know each other, once we have a conversation with each other, once we talk to each other, then color seems to go away.” Her own dream is people will embrace King's message and see that there is still work to do and that the fight for justice is not about one race or another. “I think the most important thing of Martin Luther King’s work to me is that it is a continuous effort that we must continue to press on, that we can’t take justice for granted.
He said students need to be taught more about the late leader and to live as he did:"Try your best. Try your hardest. Never give up.”About a mile from the steps where King spoke the type-written speech he read from that day is on loan to the African American Museum of History and Culture. Small groups walk up to the display in the Defending Freedom, Defining Freedom” gallery almost reverently. One or two visitors stay there reading every word.
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