Next year will mark the 50^th anniversary of the  March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Rallied by the great black union leader  A. Philip Randolph, the president of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, with the assistance of civil rights organizer Bayard Rustin and UAW president  Walter Reuther, 250,000 Americans of every color and creed turned out on the National Mall on August 28, 1963 to demonstrate their support for guaranteeing equal rights and affording “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” to all Americans.  And it is a day that generations will forever remember because of the words spoken on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial by the  Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.:  “I have a dream.”

No doubt plans are already underway to commemorate that event.  But we who believe in America’s purpose and promise of extending and deepening freedom, equality, and democracy must do more than commemorate it.  We must truly honor it.  And to do that, we cannot wait until August, 2013.

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