Why We Marched

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)

Tens of thousands – many of them union members and their families -- turned out for the August 24 50^th Anniversary March on Washington. Here are the faces and voices of some of the local participants. – interviews/photos by Chris Garlock

Alma Wigfall, Laborers 657
I’m here with my kids and grandkids to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the march, which I attended as a 16-year-old teenager. We’ve come a long way, had a lot of accomplishments, but a lot of people don’t realize the struggles we had to go through to get here. The door’s not shut, the door’s wide open, we just have to go through it.

Rick Malachi, SEIU 722
We’re here today to commemorate the 50^th anniversary of the March on Washington, and to continue the struggle for peace, equality, freedom and jobs and here in the District of Columbia, the living wage bill, which is very important for working families to better themselves, and to end racial profiling in the United States.

Jaime Contreras, SEIU 32BJ
We still have a lot of unfinished business. We’re still marching for jobs, we did 50 years ago; we’re marching for immigration reform, for the end of Stand Your Ground laws. We have a lot of problems now, just like we did 50 years ago. La lucha continua, nunca termina.

Sherri White, AFGE 3331
The march was great (but) I hope there will be a lot of action coming out of this is over and it’s not just all talk. That folks will go back to their homes and help make some changes.

Carl Goldman, AFSCME Council 26 (at right; Pat Moran, AFSCME 3, is at left) The struggle for justice and jobs continues. There’s been a lot of progress since 1963, but there’s a lot more to be made.

Thomas Blanton (l) & Larry Rubin (r), Carpenters
Rubin: I was here in ’63; working for SNCC in SW Georgia and then in Mississippi, and the DC march was a break: a large crowd and nobody was shooting at me. The significance of the march then, and today, is not the speeches, it’s the people coming together. The crowd at the ’63 march was the largest to that date, and the segregationists had been saying that they were the real Americans, but they weren’t, and the march proved it. Today it’s the same thing.
Blanton: I want to focus on the demands of the ’63 march and our demands today. A number of the issues raised then are no longer on the table, but there are a lot of issues still facing working people: justice, voting rights, living wages. Today is about renewing our spirits so we can fight for the next 50 years.

Carson Hankins, ATU 689
“I’ve always been part of the union, and my dad was too, so we all came down today to support the struggle.”

Junette Pinkney , DC Labor Chorus
Here to support the cause of DC statehood; born and raised here and we have not had representation for the 60 years I have been alive.

Michael Harris, CWA 2236
Brought my whole family down to celebrate the 50^th anniversary of the March on Washington.