Crowds mark anniversary of King's 'dream' speech

WASHINGTON -- Forty years after Martin Luther King Jr. eloquently captured the struggle of black Americans for equality, civil rights activists called Saturday for his dream to finally be realized.

His vision of a land where little black boys and girls in the South would one day hold hands with little white boys and girls was remembered by thousands of people who gathered on a warm summer day to celebrate King's "I Have a Dream" speech.

"Despite the progress we've made during the last four decades, people of color are still being denied a fair share of employment and educational opportunities in our society," said his son, Martin Luther King III.

Speaking to a few thousand people gathered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, King said it was a day to honor the hard work of all those behind the 1963 march. It also represented, he said, a moment of realization that much work lies ahead.

To mark the coming 40th anniversary of the March on Washington, King's widow, Coretta Scott King, urged the crowd to follow the peaceful path that her husband preached.

"We must make our hearts instruments of peace and nonviolence because when the heart is right, the mind and the body will follow," she said.

Mrs. King stood on the memorial's granite steps, looking out over the Reflecting Pool, in the same spot where her husband delivered his powerful appeal so many years ago to a throng estimated at 250,000.

The panel discussions varied from education, economic justice and jobs to voter education and empowerment.

The coalition of about 100 diverse groups who organized the rally used the event to kick off a 15-month voter mobilization campaign.

Saturday's teach-ins and speeches culminated a two-day celebration of the march in which King issued his famous demand for justice for all, delivered on Aug. 28, 1963.

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,"' he said.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

Organizers reached out this year to the younger generation of 20- to 30-year-olds, and many of them turned out.

Jimmy Prude, 20, a senior at Howard University, said he wanted to understand a little more about economic empowerment.

"I just want to see people be able to help better themselves, and be able to learn how to invest their money," he said. "All the skills that are needed to be successful in life."