Gephardt on 40th Anniversary of the March on Washington

August 28, 2003 - 

Washington, DC

Today we commemorate the historic actions of thousands of Americans who came to Washington, DC forty years ago in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom to demand equal rights and justice for African-Americans. I salute the courage and spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, A. Philip Randolph, Bayard Rustin, Roy Wilkins, Walter Reuther, Dorothy Height and all the other organizers and participants in the march that truly changed the direction of our country. I am proud to have served in the Congressional Leadership with the youngest speaker that day, one of America's greatest heroes, my friend Congressman John Lewis.

Dr. King's stirring 'I Have a Dream' speech closed the march, gave a new direction to the country and set us on the path to the progress we have made in the last forty years. As Dr. King dreamed and the participants in the march envisioned, we have become a greater nation because we have made civil rights protections the law of the land and opened the door of opportunity to all our citizens.

The progress that we have made is being eroded today by an administration that cares little about the enforcement of civil rights laws and protections of civil liberties. The jobs and economic opportunity that were at the core of the march are disappearing with increasing unemployment that has hit the African-American community particularly hard. We must do better.

I will be a president who shares the dream and the vision of those who marched on Washington forty years ago, and I will carry that inspiration with me every day that I am blessed to serve in the White House.