Sixty years after Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, a lot more work has to take place for true equality.
Niagara Falls community leaders and residents took the time to reflect on that struggle by commemorating the anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Copies of the original March on Washington signs were hung around the Niagara Falls Amtrak station’s event space.
The ceremony was put on by Niagara University’s Rose Bente Lee Ostapenko Center for Race, Equity & Mission, with director Roland Ward leading. About 90 people in attendance listened to 14 speakers talk about what has been achieved and what remains to be done.
The March on Washington took place on Aug. 28, 1963 on the National Mall and is best remembered as where Dr. King delivered his iconic speech. More than 250,000 were in attendance demonstrating for federal action on civil rights. It would lead to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
“I felt like today was an opportunity for those who are 60 years out from the first March on Washington to report back,” Ward said.
Ward was reminded of King’s words about it being fatal to overlook the urgency of the moment, as minorities still face various forms of discrimination and violence. This past weekend saw three Black people killed at a Jacksonville, Florida Dollar General store in what is believed to be a racially motivated shooting spree.
“This summer, someone asked me if progress has been made,” Ward said. “The world doesn’t look like the world of the 1960s. The core issues of then, the civil rights movement, economic security and educational access are still present.”
Many of the speakers acknowledged that the road ahead for achieving equality remains long. Micah Jones, a member of Niagara County Community College’s Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion committee, said there needs to be more faculty of color on college campuses, adding that there is only one such professor at NCCC. Niagara University student Samaya Valis brought up how unaffordable housing has become since the COVID-19 pandemic and advocated for rent control.
Rev. Raymond Allen of Bethany Missionary Baptist Church talked of the ever-present need to vote in elections and hold elected officials accountable. Renae Kimble of the NAACP Niagara Falls chapter spoke of the city’s role in the eventual founding of the organization through the Niagara Movement.
Other speakers focused on the labor movement’s role in achieving civil rights. The ceremony also featured two songs sung by Niagara Falls resident Priscilla Green.
Ward and the Ostapenko Center have led many other discussions of racial issues in Niagara Falls. In the past year, it has co-hosted talks with the Entrepreneur School of Thought and participated in a community lamentation on the one-year anniversary of the Buffalo Tops mass shooting.
“People shouldn’t be afraid to be who they are in society, or be without the basics,” Ward said.
Monday’s gathering was not an anniversary celebration, it is a continuance of the march, Kimble added.