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REV. AL SHARPTON & NATIONAL ACTION NETWORK (NAN), ALONG WITH CIVIL RIGHTS LEADERS, CLERGY AND PROGRESSIVE ACTIVISTS TO LEAD MASSIVE RECLAIM THE DREAM RALLY & MARCH

New York, NY (June 15, 2010)—-Forty-seven years after the historic March on Washington, Reverend Al Sharpton, President of National Action Network and leaders from his over 47-chapters across the country, along with progressive heads of organizations, unions and clergy will lead a mass rally and march in Washington, DC on Saturday, August 28, 2010 to RECLAIM THE DREAM. While across town at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial the conservative tea party members and TV host Glenn Beck will hijack the dream, civil rights activists will convene at Dunbar High School to shed light upon key issues that have diminished the dream. Today in some areas of the country, unemployment rates for minorities are 2.5% higher than the unemployment rates for equally educated white applicants. On average in 1963, Black students were four grade levels behind white students. Today, the statistics have only slightly improved. The quest for immigrant rights rages in Arizona. Police misconduct, higher rates of minority imprisonment, and disparities for sentencing minority offenders reveal a society that has yet to fully embrace Dr. King’s dream. We must reclaim his dream by making a public commitment to finish turning his dream into reality.

At the historic 1963 March on Washington, Dr. King and his colleagues addressed many of the same problems that we continue to work towards fixing today. It is important to focus the world’s attention on how far we have come, as well as how far we have yet to go in achieving the goals set forth on that day, forty-seven years ago. Some have tried to dilute and distort the meaning of Dr. King’s dream – saying that Dr. King fought for a society beyond racial agendas and concerns about inequality based on nationality, or that the dream was achieved with the election of an African-American President. These opinions are not correct. The dream Dr. King and civil rights leaders envisioned on that important day was to resolve inequality in all areas of society. They dreamt of a society that provided equal protection under the law, as well as equal economic and social opportunity for each citizen. Despite the aforementioned facts, great progress has been made. Still, we must not lose our way with premature celebration or reckless distortion of Dr. King’s goals. No day is more important to refocus and reclaim than the day the world stood still and heard the dream eloquently spoken by Dr. King, forty-seven years ago.

Saturday, August 28, 2010

11:00 a.m.

Dunbar High School

1301 New Jersey Avenue Northwest

Washington, DC

To book Rev. Sharpton for interviews: [email protected]