On 50th anniversary of MLK's speech, locals excited about trip to D.C.

On 50th anniversary of MLK's speech, locals excited about trip to D.C.

Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School sixth-grader Malik Washington left Kankakeeon Friday afternoon with 53 others to join a 50th anniversary pilgrimage to Washington, D.C., in remembrance of MLK's famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

Malik said his own dream today is "to be successful." But he was going to Washington "to march for justice ... for Trayvon ... jobs ... I have a dream." Though just 11, he said he thinks racial relations have improved because "we communicate with each other better."

His grandmother, Shawn Love, of Kankakee, said she was making the trip "to take my grandson to this historic moment and to march on Washington for justice. I want to teach my grandson you have to take the positive way to do things in life."

She planned to meet in Washington with two other grandsons from Maryland and her brother, Kankakee native Angelo Bailey, of D.

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Locals reflect on anniversary of MLK's historic speech

It was a speech that both celebrated and indicted a nation.

Beneath the solemn gaze of Abraham Lincoln, a young civil rights activist, well-known for his oratory mastery, delivered a speech that would become as emblematic as the statute behind him.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., less than five years before hisassassination in 1968, roused a crowd of at least 250,000 people at the March on Washington with a call for freedom, hearkening back to Lincoln's own shining moment — the Emancipation Proclamation.

"One hundred years later the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land," King said that day. "So we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition."

Hundreds of thousands are expected to fill the mall today as President Barack Obama, the nation's first black president, is set to deliver his own remarks.

Last week, tens of thousands, maybe more, traveled to the same spot to honor and soak in that moment in history when King delivered his historic speech.

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On 50th anniversary of MLK's speech, locals excited about trip to D.C.

On 50th anniversary of MLK's speech, locals excited about trip to D.C.

Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School sixth-grader Malik Washington left Kankakeeon Friday afternoon with 53 others to join a 50th anniversary pilgrimage to Washington, D.C., in remembrance of MLK's famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

Malik said his own dream today is "to be successful." But he was going to Washington "to march for justice ... for Trayvon ... jobs ... I have a dream." Though just 11, he said he thinks racial relations have improved because "we communicate with each other better."

His grandmother, Shawn Love, of Kankakee, said she was making the trip "to take my grandson to this historic moment and to march on Washington for justice. I want to teach my grandson you have to take the positive way to do things in life."

She planned to meet in Washington with two other grandsons from Maryland and her brother, Kankakee native Angelo Bailey, of D.

View the original article here