After the Dream, the Fight Goes On

On the spot where 150 years ago resistant slaves were sold south to die in the fever swamps and cane fields, 300 gathered last night to honor the continuing fight for freedom. 

Jim Warren at the Herald:

Lexingtonians black and white, young and old, celebrated the 50th anniversary of the 1963 March For Jobs and Freedom on Wednesday night, building on the excitement of a huge celebration in Washington earlier in the day.

While the event at Courthouse Square in downtown Lexington couldn't match the size and drama of the remembrance in Washington, the sense of history and promise in local memories of the march and Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech carried its own significance.

The Rev. Norman Fischer, parish priest at St. Peter Claver Catholic Church, energized the Lexington crowd by leading the chant "I Am The Dream."

Anthony Wright, Stan Shelby, Jonathan Lott and Halden Hunt, all seventh-graders from Lexington's Carter G. Woodson Academy who were born decades after the march and King's speech, read vivid essays that they wrote celebrating both.

Kudos to U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes as well as Mayor Jim Gray for attending and addressing the gathering. Senator Mitch McConnell rejected President Obama's invitation to speak at the Washington event earlier.