Statement of John Kerry on the 41st Anniversary of the March on Washington

[Feanorcurufinwe]

"Forty-one years ago, on August 28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. led over 250,000 peaceful protestors to the Lincoln Memorial on a March for Jobs and Freedom.

"Dr. King's 'I Have a Dream' speech firmly established the visibility in this nation of the injustices faced by too many African Americans in the south. Soon after the March on Washington and Dr. King's speech, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But, as Dr. King told us, the Civil Rights Act was 'only the beginning of a new day...not the end of a journey.' The next step in our journey must be to remove the barriers that keep us from drinking at the same fountain of opportunity.

"Our work is not yet done when many of our kids are not receiving a quality education; when 44 million Americans don't have health insurance and people of color are significantly more likely to suffer and die from diseases like cancer and AIDS and diabetes; when African America unemployment continues to be double that of whites; when right-wing judges are turning back the clock, eroding many of the civil rights gains of the past 40 years; and when some in Washington are sowing new seeds of division, not unity.

"John Edwards and I believe that we can do better. Our job is to end the division between the fortunate America and the forgotten America. We must come together to build one America. And we must carry the words of Dr. King in our hearts, who proclaimed on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, '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.'"
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