Schools Engage Their Campus Communities with March on Washington Events - Higher Education

Schools Engage Their Campus Communities with March on Washington Events - Higher Education: COLLEGE PARK, MD. – With President Barack Obama delivering a globally-televised speech Wednesday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, dozens if not hundreds of colleges and universities organized tributes to mark the most inspiring event in the American civil rights movement.

Recalling how the “soaring oratory” of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech “gave mighty voice to the quiet hopes of millions … [and] offered a salvation path for oppressed and oppressors alike,” Obama praised the late civil rights champion for the leadership he presented to the nation.

“His words belong to the ages, possessing a power and prophecy unmatched in our time,” the president said.

Campus events, ranging from rallies, lectures, brown bag lunch discussions, teach-ins to speech re-enactments, also paid homage to King and the powerful speech he delivered at the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963.