Thousands gather at March on Washington commemorations

WASHINGTON (AP) — Capping a week of protests and outrage over the police shooting of a Black man in Wisconsin, civil rights advocates on Friday denounced police and vigilante violence against Black Americans at a commemoration of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.Thousands gathered near the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, where the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his historic, “I Have a Dream” address, a vision of racial equality that remains elusive for millions of Americans.The event came on the heels of yet another shooting by a white police officer of a Black man — 29-year-old Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin— that sparked days of protests and violence that left two dead.“I want to give space for Black people in the crowd to say they are not OK,” said Jumaane Williams, New York City’s public advocate, who addressed march attendees shortly after the program began.“We are like the nameless grandmothers who got in the streets and said, ‘We will make you live up to what America says she is,’” Williams said. “Without his brilliance and his commitment to our intersectional social justice, there would not have been a March on Washington.”“If you care about Black people like I do, if you love Black people like I do, you’ve got to love and care about all of us,” Johns said.While participants march in Washington, Sharpton has called for those in other states to march on their U.S. senators’ offices and demand their support of federal policing reforms.