Photos: Thousands call for racial justice at March on Washington

Photos by Rich Hundley III, text by Krystal Knapp

The deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and the shooting of Jacob Blake, who is now paralyzed from the waist down, drew large crowds for the March on Washington Friday. The event was held 57 years after Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a march that was held to advocate for the civil and economic rights of African Americans.

At the march Friday, participants vowed to fight police brutality and injustice. The event starting at the Lincoln Memorial. After speeches, the crowd marched to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. Several loved ones of people who have been shot or killed by police spoke and vowed not to stop protesting until change comes in the United States.

“We will not be a footstool to oppression,” Jacob Blake’s sister, Letetra Widman, told the marchers. “Black America, I hold you accountable. You must stand. You must fight, but not with violence and chaos.”

Jacob Blake Sr., father of Jacob Blake, described two systems of justice in the United States: “There’s a White system and there’s a Black system. The Black system ain’t doing so well, but we’re going to stand up. Every Black person in the United States is going to stand up.”We’re tired. I’m tired of looking at cameras and seeing these young Black and brown people suffer,” he said.

George Floyd’s sister, Bridget Floyd, said people need to be the voice for her brother. “My brother cannot be a voice today. We have to be the voice. We have to be the change,” she said

“We’re at a point we can get that change,” Breonna Taylor’s mother, Tamika Palmer, said, “but we have to stand together — we have to vote.”