It's been 50 years since the famous march on Washington D.C. led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and on Saturday over 100,000 people are expected to march from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument, passing the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, to commemorate the anniversary, according to Reuters.
The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom took place on Aug. 28, 1963 and culminated with Dr. King's famous "I have a dream" speech. Saturday's event will feature speeches from Attorney General Eric Holder, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the family of Trayvon Martin. Also speaking will be Rep John Lewis, D-Ga., the last surviving organizer of the original event, according to Reuters.
As the first African-American president of the United States it's only natural to consider what exactly President Barack Obama's role in the civil rights movement is. The Rev. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have both recently questioned whether or not President Obama is a civil rights leader, according to Politico.
"Do I think he's a civil rights leader? No," Sharpton told Politico. "I think he'd be the first person to tell you that. He understands that I'm an activist and I understand that he's the president [while] some of the guys ... want him to be the civil rights leader that brings issues to himself. The president can't lead a march on himself."
President Obama has had to tread a fine line when it comes to race while in the White House, often receiving criticism for his ability to skirt the issue of race much of the time. Many political observers were shocked when President Obama gave an unexpected speech regarding the acquittal of George Zimmerman shortly after the verdict; the president spoke about race in a far more personal way than he ever had publicly since his election in 2008.
While it was a remarkable achievement for President Obama to become the first African-American to hold the office does that place him on the same level as a civil rights leader like Dr. King?
"Those are two different roles," Jackson told Politico. "What we needed from Dr. King was motivation and vision. What we need from the president is appropriation and legislation."
Valerie Jarrett, a senior advisor to President Obama, explained to Politico that the president has an obligation to move the civil rights movement forward.
"The Civil Rights Movement is what created the opportunity to pave the way for the United States to be able to elect the first African-American president," Jarrett told Politico. "So, he stands on the shoulders of those who pave the way, but he also recognizes that as president of the United States he has an enormous responsibility as well to continue - to use Martin Luther King's words - moving the arc of the moral universe, to bend it toward justice."
The president will not be one of the speakers at Saturday's event but he will be making an address from the steps of the Lincoln memorial on Wednesday, the actual anniversary of Dr. King's speech. President Obama sought advice from Lewis while writing his speech that he hopes will be able to create a connection between the generation that actively participated in the march and the one who only know Dr. King from history books, according to Politico.
