Young activists continue to fight for equality 60 years after March on Washington

BALTIMORE -- This year marks the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington.

It was on August 28, 1963.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his acclaimed "I Have a Dream Speech" on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.

Decades later, King's speech echoes as an anthem for young Black Americans still marching and fighting for some of the same rights King and many others fought for.

WjZ took a closer look at the inspiration and the future of this prolonged fight for equality.

"I Have a Dream" is a phrase that transcended the minds of millions in 1963…

The March on Washington was a fight for jobs and freedom that captivated America and created countless activists in the continued battle for civil rights.

"As a leader today, I'm preserving the legacy of myself and other leaders that are charging this fight forward," said Tariah Hyland, of Black Girls Vote at Howard University.

Now, a new generation of young leaders, including Hyland and Michelle Spann, from Morgan State, are continuing the fight over issues that span decades in America.

"We're voting against voter suppression now because there are tactics against our rights as voters," Hyland said.

"The maternal mortality rate for Black women, Black people are more likely to be victims of human trafficking or sex trafficking," Spann added.

"Also education, we see that our history is oftentimes left out of the curriculum and is still trying to be taken out of the curriculum, our true history," Hyland said.

It's a history that is hard to swallow for many, but in it is a show of resilience and determination by activists whose names were once unheard of.

"Angela Davis, Assata Shakur, James Baldwin, Tony Morrison," Spann said.

"A big one for me is Shirley Chisom," Hyland said, "She is just someone who inspires me so much, especially as a political science major and as someone who was a force in the political space. She sets a big standard for me."

The list of names can go on and on.

But what's clear is that the March on Washington in 1963 marked a giant torch that continues to be passed on to the current generation of leaders and activists carrying the legacy of their ancestors.

"Young people need to be able to think and understand their history, whether you agree with it or not," said Dr. Ida Jones, Morgan State University archivist. "And understand that they are responsible now as heirs to this legacy to further this idea of democracy - to further the idea of inclusion and to further the idea of our humanity."

It's the humanity of African Americans that became the center point of Dr. King's dream on that summer day in August of 1963 as he looked out over the sea of people all wanting the same thing.

"I hope that I'm making you proud. I hope that I'm carrying on what you laid the foundation for us to do," Spann said. "I hope we are surpassing your wildest dreams of what we would have been able to do."

"It's fueling for me as a leader, and it serves as a reminder of the work that is still to be done because we've made great strides but there is still a ways to go," Hyland said.

A commemorative March on Washington 60th anniversary event will convene on the National Mall in Washington D.C. on Saturday, August 26, starting at 8 a.m.

"When this all happens, all men will be able to stand together, Black men and white men, Jews and gentiles, protestants and Catholics, and sing a new song, "Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty, we are free at last' and that's all of us," Dr. Jones said.