Fifty years after Martin Luther King Junior led the March on Washington, more than a dozen Quad Cities organizations will echo his message of equality today in Davenport. The public is invited to Lafayette Park this afternoon to celebrate the progress made in half a century.
Director of the Davenport Chapter of Organizing Action, Kevin Perkins, says it's important to commemorate that day history when Martin Luther King Junior shared his "I Have A Dream" speech.
"It's a very impactful part of our history," said Perkins. "And we need not foget what hundreds of thousands of people had to endure over time and what it took effort-wise to move our country toward a more just set of laws with regard to civil rights."
But, Perkins says we still have a lot of work to do as a country. Voter's rights, immigration reform, and liveable wages are just a few issues that need to be addressed.
"I hope they take away that it's incumbent upon all of us to remain diligent in the work that we have to do to maintain the civil rights we've attained over the years," said Perkins about the audience at today's ceremony. "But also to move forward and help expand the civil rights for some groups that are still on the margins and are impacted."
Organizations taking part in the ceremony today include the Quad City Federation of Labor, LULAC, NAACP Rock Island County, and several others.
The 50th Anniversary of the March on Washington celebration begins at 2:30 this afternoon at Lafayette Park in Davenport.