'We have to keep on marching': Local activists plan as anniversary of historic march approaches

Aug. 24—In August 1963, more than a quarter-million people marched on Washington, D.C., to demand fair wages, civil rights protections, voting rights and an end to segregation.

The march, which culminated in Martin Luther King Jr.'s legendary "I Have a Dream" speech, was followed about a year later by President Lyndon Johnson's signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and over a year after that, the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

But almost 60 years later, Albuquerque family members of some of the original activists at that march say the work still isn't done.

"My brother and my father were both civil rights activists, and they're both dead. So I'm carrying on, and I wanted this march because it's my way of showing solidarity," said Chaia Ross, whose brother was a part of the 1963 march, and who spearheaded planning for a local march at 10 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 26, at Faith Temple Church of God in Christ.

Though it is near the anniversary of the original 1963 march, organizers said the event in Albuquerque, which is timed with a broader, national march again on Washington isn't meant as a commemoration of the march 60 years ago but rather a continuation of it.

"Things are not the way they should be, or where they should be. And so we have to keep on marching," NAACP Albuquerque President Harold Bailey said.

The blow struck to affirmative action in college admissions earlier this year and voter suppression in other parts of the country are among issues Bailey and other event organizers said are at the root of Saturday's march.

But although organizers don't know yet how many people will turn out to the march — they hope at least 200 — Charles Powell, another organizer and member of the local chapter of the NAACP, said it's nevertheless about rallying support within Albuquerque to carry on the fight.

"I think it'll be reassuring to the Black community that ... New Mexico does care, so that people will come out of it confident that we have support here," he said. "The job isn't complete. We have to continue working, and so I hope people are encouraged to continue to work."