By Ayaan Soorma, age 9
At the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., the monumental March on Washington concluded with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. giving his famous “I Have a Dream” speech on August 28, 1963, exactly 60 years ago.
More than 250,000 flooded the streets of Washington for the March for Jobs and Freedom to demand an end to racial segregation, fairer wages, voting rights, and education. Dr. King’s closing speech still echoes through schools even today, as we all still continue to hope that things will get better. He believed that education is the key to escaping poverty and to having a real chance in life, and that people of all races deserved to have a high-quality education.
His efforts and leadership paved the way for the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which, among other things, banned discrimination in public schools. Dr. King’s speech is still important today because no matter how many positive changes that have been made, racial inequality still exists in the United States.
