Happy Anniversary!!!

50 years ago on this day there this monumental event that took place. It was a march by hundreds of thousands of people from all over the country, and quite possible all over the world. These people, who were demanding equal rights for themselves, those that looked like them, and those that looked nothing like them converged on Washington D.C. They were seeking fair work treatment, the end of Jim Crow, the right to vote, the right to due process and so many other things that would make living in this country something to be proud of.

50 years ago these people converged on the Washington Mall was to advocate the passing of the Civil Rights Act that had it's momentum stalled in Congress. The man who organized the very first march on Washington, a march organized based on the fact that Black people benefited less from Roosevelt's New Deal programs during the depression than anyone else, was at it again. Though the first march was cancelled because Roosevelt caved and signed into law Executive Order 8802 which forbade discrimination by any defense contractor while establishing the Fair Employment Practices Committee that would investigate charges of racial discrimination, A. Phillip Randolph was at it again. Randolph organized the second march, this time with long time associate Bayard Rustin and while President Kennedy didn't want the march to go on, there would be no cancelling this time around.

50 years ago, organizations that held long standing grudges put them aside and worked together to make sure this march was a success. The two biggest organizations, The Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the NAACP, two groups that very rarely saw eye to eye buried the hatchet for a bigger cause then just themselves. This was such a monumental event because never before had Black people stood en masse and demanded something. When Blacks did something like that back then, they were usually killed on the spot. If someone called you a "nigger" or a "coon" or a "jigaboo", there was no fighting back, you had to take it while damn near saying thank you for the disrespect. People were being lynched while the word nigger rained down on them and now today we're calling each other that vile word, that ability was granted to us because of that march.

With performances by some of the biggest stars of the day, Blacks and whites mingled together, danced together, cheered and applauded together peacefully as person after person took to the podium and delivered heartfelt, impassioned speeches. Speeches about what needed to be done for this country to live up to its potential and treat ALL of it's citizens fairly. No speech was more impactful or profoundly moving than the speech given that day by Martin Luther King Jr. The ending of his speech was actually improvised, which is amazing when you think of it.

To all those that marched and attended, my mother included, to those that fought and died in the struggle before and afterwards, I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for doing what you could to smooth the roads for me and my generation. Your marching on Washington has allowed my generation to make asses of ourselves on television talk shows, make asses of ourselves in music videos and award shows, and become President. I want to bid you and your march a  Happy Anniversary, and please know that some of us still know...the struggle continues.