Rally marks ‘I Have a Dream’ speech

Youths on their way to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington yesterday to participate in a mass rally to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Martin Luther King Jr’s “I Have a Dream” speech and to urge action on jobs, voting rights and gun violence. “We believe in a new America. It’s time to march for a new America,” civil rights leader Al Sharpton told the predominantly black crowd from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Sharpton and other speakers paid tribute to King and other civil rights leaders for progress over the past five decades that led to significant gains, including Barack Obama’s election as the first black US president. But the shooting death of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida last year and the Supreme Court’s recent decision to strike down a portion of the nation’s voting rights law showed the struggle was not over, they said.