Teens reflect on changes since the March on Washington - baltimoresun.com: Much has changed for the last three generations of 17-year-old Charles Evans' family. His grandfather participated in the March on Washington, but he still dared not dream that a black man would become president, Evans said. When Evans' father later joked that he wanted to be the first African-American president, his grandfather dismissed the idea.
The election of Barack Obama has convinced Evans that for his generation, anything is now possible.
"It was beyond what anyone in the civil rights movement could have envisioned," he said Wednesday.
Fifty years to the day after his grandfather made the trip to Washington, Evans was one of a small group of students at Randallstown High School gathered to hear a re-enactment of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s speech and reflect on their futures, just as other students in schools in Howard, Anne Arundel and Baltimore counties discussed the anniversary in social studies classes. One city school, KIPP, took students to the march Wednesday.
Despite the recent harsh political rhetoric after court decisions on the death of Florida teenager Trayvon Martin and voting rights, these Randallstown students said they remain optimistic about the trajectory the country has taken since the march.
