“Sixty years ago today, hundreds of thousands of people converged on the National Mall in a march that spiritually began more than 100 years prior with the Underground Railroad and continued through the Great Migration of the early 20th century. As we recognize the 60th anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, we are still marching for jobs and freedom, but we are also marching against hate, bigotry and wicked systems of discrimination and injustice that have induced suffering for far too long. This hate was evident in last weekend’s brutal, racist attack in Jacksonville, Florida, for which my heart goes out to the families of the victims and all those impacted.

As we remember the March on Washington today, let us also remember our continued struggle against the racism that devastates our daily lives. Let us stand for righteousness, love of our neighbors and protecting our most vulnerable. And let us uphold the legacy of March leaders and civil rights giants the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, Whitney Young, James Farmer, John Lewis and Roy Wilkins in furthering a movement for change, and a movement for the equal rights we all so richly deserve.”

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