People from across the country are expected to converge on the nation’s capital on Aug. 28 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington. But here in Greater Boston, a group of interfaith leaders is hoping to use the occasion to make its own statement about civil rights.
The Memorial March for Peace will be held on Aug. 28 – the same day as the anniversary of the 1963 march. But this gathering will take its route from Boston to Newton Centre to show that more needs to be done, according to Sarah Mausner, one of the organizers of the march.
“While there has been amazing progress, there’s still an enormous amount of unfinished business,” Mausner said. “The fact that you have some people doing very, very well doesn’t mean that everything is OK, because it’s not.”
The March on Washington is remembered as one of the seminal moments of the civil rights movement, culminating with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
Mausner said the goal of the original march was to bring focus on jobs and the economy, and many of the issues raised that day persist. Beyond economic disparities, Mausner said there also are persistent issues with violence in urban areas and educational inequalities.
The march is co-sponsored by City Mission Society of Boston, Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries and the Bobby Mendes Peace Legacy, among others. It will begin with a prayer vigil at the Garden of Peace at 100 Cambridge St., near the State House in Boston. From there, more than 100 people are expected to take the seven-mile walk to the First Baptist Church at 848 Beacon St. in Newton Center. There, an interfaith gathering for justice and peace will be held at 7 p.m.
Speakers will include Susannah Heschel, Rev. Kim Odom and Donnell Baird, and a message will be read from honorary chair Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
Whitney Retallic, executive director of Cooperative Metropolitan Ministries, said her group was founded in 1966 by a group of faith leaders from the Boston area who went down to the March on Washington and decided to bring the message of interfaith collaboration to the civil rights fight in this area.
Retallic said her group is delighted to be a part of the march and being able to show the role an interfaith movement can make in bridging divides and improving understanding.
“It connects to that history of walking with each other in support of something and to raise awareness about something,” Retallic said. “It brings awareness to the fact that there are still divides among us 50 years after the 1963 march.”
Local gospel music group the LoveTones will be performing as part of the activities. Group member Walter Cooper said his focus would be on the role of music in the civil rights movement and the fact that they were taken from spirituals and rewritten to fit the time.
Those spiritual songs came out of fear and oppression, Cooper said, but they show the ability to overcome and keep moving.
Mausner said she has approached locals who participated in the original march to see if they were interested in participating, but most have chosen to travel to Washington to partake in the ceremonies there. She appreciates those who are going, but she sees the local march as having a different purpose, including raising funds for the Louis D. Brown Peace Institute and its initiatives.
“My feeling is that whatever happens in Washington is going to be ceremonial,” Mausner said. “What we’re doing is not ceremonial.”