Thousands showed up to protest systemic racism and police brutality at the March on Washington on Friday, calling for racial equality by echoing the words Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. offered in the same place 57 years earlier. The gathering came at the end of a convulsing summer following the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police officers and the police brutality that has continued since. Among the speakers at Friday’s protest were the sister and father of Jacob Blake, the unarmed Black man who was shot seven times in the back in front of his children—and left paralyzed from the waist down—just five days earlier. “We will not be a footstool to oppression,” said Letetra Widman, Blake’s sister. “Black America, I hold you accountable. You must stand. You must fight, but not with violence and chaos.”
Grieving relatives of those killed or injured by police in recent years addressed the crowd gathered at the nation’s capital, a “procession of anguished Black men and women” that the Washington Post remarked “ran so long that not all of them had a chance to speak.” “It’s been six years since my father’s words became our words,” Eric Garner Jr. said. Ahmaud Arbery’s father spoke of the grieving that happens every day: “I’m used to my boy calling me, saying he loves me. Sometimes I’m like, ‘He forgot to call me.’” Trayvon Martin’s mother, Sybrina Fulton, encouraged the crowd to “stand up” and “keep fighting” for racial equality “even though it looks dark,” demanding perseverance. “Don’t stop saying Black Lives Matter. Don’t stop peaceful protesting, don’t stop praying, don’t stop uniting, stand together. This is what this is about—we was built for this.”
“It’s time we had a conversation with America. We need to have a conversation about your racism, about your bigotry, about your hate, about how you will put your knee on our neck while we cry for our lives,” said Reverend Al Sharpton, who coordinated the event titled “Commitment March: Get Your Knee Off Our Necks” after Floyd’s killing. “We will speak against the looting, but when will you speak against wrong police shooting?”
Two generations of Kings spoke, with King’s 12-year-old granddaughter Yolanda Renee King telling the crowd that they “are the great dreams of our grandparents” and that “we will fulfill my grandfather’s dream.” Martin Luther King III, noting that his father “would implore us not to deify him or selectively quote him when convenient” if he were alive, issued a call to action and rallied people to vote. “If you’re looking for a savior, get up and find a mirror. We must become the heroes of the history we are making.” Breonna Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, also noted the urgency of November’s election: “We’re at a point we can get that change, but we have to stand together—we have to vote.” Blake’s father, Jacob Blake Sr., told the crowd: “We’re tired. I’m tired of looking at cameras and seeing these young Black and brown people suffer.”
In a gutting interview with CNN earlier on Friday, Blake Sr. condemned the treatment of his son, who was at the time being handcuffed to his hospital bed and guarded by officers—restraints reportedly issued “for an outstanding warrant for third-degree sexual assault” that have since been annulled, per Axios. “He’s a person. He’s a human being. He’s not an animal,” Blake Sr. said. “But my son has not been afforded the rights of a human. He’s not been treated like a human. He’s a father. He’s not a deadbeat dad, he’s a father that’s with his children every day.”