State College community members will gather tonight (Aug. 28) for a special program celebrating the 56th anniversary of the landmark March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
The hourlong event will be held beginning at 5:30 p.m. at the Martin Luther King Jr. Plaza, 127 S. Fraser St.
The Aug. 28, 1963 March on Washington was held in the nation’s capital to bring attention to civil and economic rights for African-Americans. On that day before an estimated crowd of 250,000 people in front of the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, a vision for a nation free of racism.
It was one of the largest rallies for human rights in United States history and played a major role in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Wednesday’s event will open with the Black National Anthem performed by State College-based family trio Bubble Gum Soul, followed by a welcome from Gary Abdullah, of the borough’s MLK Plaza planning subcommittee.
Music from Gabe Green, a poet and Penn State graduate student in African American and Diaspora Studies, will include songs from his new EP. AnneMarie Mingo, assistant professor of African American studies and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at Penn State, then will give remarks on ‘The March on Washington, Explained.’
Poetry by Amy Freeman, director of the Penn State Millennium Scholars Program, will be followed by ‘Remembrances of the Day,’ by Charles Dumas, Penn State professor emeritus of theatre and a participant in the 1963 March on Washington.
Oyin Adetola, of Penn State’s Black Caucus, will discuss the current role of activism, and Nyla C. Holland, executive director of Penn State’s 2020 Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration student committee, will talk about plans for the coming year’s activities.
The event also will mark the second anniversary of the establishment of the Martin Luther King Jr. plaza. The former Fraser Street plaza was renamed and redesigned over the course of several years with input from community members. It commemorates King’s Jan. 21, 1965 visit to Penn State’s Rec Hall, along with other notable moments from the civil rights leader’s life.
“Out of the many memorials to King around the nation and world, there are not many outside of key civil rights cities in the South — Birmingham, Atlanta, Memphis and others — that extend beyond a street name, a mural/image, or maybe a quote,” Mingo said in a news release.
“The Martin Luther King, Jr. Plaza in State College is intentionally designed as a gathering place where youngand old can learn about local and national civil rights events and hopefully be inspired by King and look at whatrole they too can take in helping make the world a more just place. It was the borough’s vision to create a spacethat can teach and inspire those involved in struggles today.”
