Guardians of King’s Dream Regroup in Washington

People arrived at the Lincoln Memorial on Wednesday.

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

WASHINGTON — “The dream is not dead,” said Dr. Alveda King, a minister and niece of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as she walked into the Shiloh Baptist Church here Wednesday morning. “People are proving the dream is not dead. The biggest thing is love.”

Fifty years to the day after her uncle roused the nation with his “I Have a Dream” speech, Dr. King’s descendants gathered for a morning interfaith service to begin a day that will culminate with a speech by the nation’s first black president in the very spot — the steps of the Lincoln Memorial — where Dr. King delivered his call to civil justice.

As the service got under way, thousands of people were flocking to the National Mall and the Lincoln Memorial in preparation for an afternoon ceremony, including President Obama’s speech. Security was extremely tight, with most streets around the National Mall closed to cars. The security and a light rain seemed to be keeping down the size of the early crowds. 

Christopher Gregory/The New York Times

But at Shiloh Baptist, a historic church founded 150 years ago by former slaves — and where Dr. King spoke in 1960 — the mood was festive as dignitaries streamed into the soaring chapel. The service was a reminder that at his core, Dr. King was a religious man whose civil rights work was rooted in his faith and a desire for what he called “the beloved community” — a world without poverty or racism or war.

“The true essence, the true nature, the true character of Martin Luther King Jr. is that he was a pastor, he was a prophet, he was a faith leader,” his daughter, the Rev. Bernice A. King, the chief executive of the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change in Atlanta, told those gathered here.

“We are here today,” she said, “to call upon our faith, to call upon our spirituality, to call upon our higher selves recognizing that nothing in the world will ever change if it’s not for people of faith coming together.”

Wednesday’s events are part of a weeklong commemoration of the Aug. 28, 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Justice that began Saturday with a similar civil rights march on the National Mall. Wednesday’s event is intended, organizers said, as more of a call to unity. Mr. Obama will be joined former Presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, and the ceremony will include a bell-ringing ceremony at 3 p.m., along with concurrent bell-ringing ceremonies in cities and communities across the nation.

Outside the church, where dignitaries arrived in a steady stream of black Lincoln Town Cars for the morning service, memories of 1963 were deep — and very personal.

Deacon Chuck Hall, 67, who grew up in Denver, said he remembers Dr. King visiting his church when he was a young boy. His sisters were photographed with the civil rights leader, he said, but he was busy playing basketball and skipped the picture — a decision he regrets to this day. On the day of the march in Washington, his parents sat him down in front of the television and instructed him to watch.

“I wasn’t here,” he said, “but I was at the march.”

Jerome McNeil, a retired bus operator for the Washington Metro system, was outside the church, cameras dangling from his neck, taking pictures alongside news photographers, though he is an amateur. He grew up in Mobile, Ala., and like many here, he said that the nation has come a long way toward achieving Dr. King’s vision for justice and racial equality, but still has a long way to go. He said he intended to chronicle the day’s events for his grandchildren, who are in school.

“I’m hopeful that in 50 years, they won’t have to have this type of demonstration and meeting,” Mr. McNeil said. “At some point, hopefully, they will be recognized for who they are and not what they are.”

When Andrew Young, the retired ambassador, civil rights leader and former Atlanta mayor, addressed the crowd on the mall, he did so in song, delivering a stirring rendition of “Woke Up This Morning with My Mind Stayed on Freedom,” an anthem of the civil rights movement. But when he implored the audience to join in, the few who did could barely be heard. 

“We’re not here to declare victory,” Mr. Young later told the crowd. “We’re here to simply say that the struggle continues.”

As Sandra Harris boarded a train bound for downtown Washington, the nostalgia of attending the 1963 march set in. At 18, she had taken a bus from segregated Nashville. “I’d never seen so many people in my life, ever,” she said.

As a student at Fisk University, she said, she had participated in sit-ins in Nashville alongside John Lewis, an organizer of the original march, and had been arrested several times.

She “wanted a better life for Negroes in the United States because we were not being treated fairly,” she said, using the term for African-Americans accepted in that period.

Headed to another march on Wednesday, this time for “jobs and justice,” she and her daughter joined a rally at Georgetown University’s law school, where signs and chants indicated how the scope of the fight for black equality had broadened to include gays, immigrants and others.

Hoisting a portrait of a faceless man carrying a sign declaring his manhood, John Thompson, 24, an artist from East Orange, N.J., said, “Everything has room for improvement.”

Despite drizzling rain, the march rolled past the Department of Labor on Constitution Avenue, where workers cheered the marchers and snapped photos during a brief stop. By the time it rounded a corner onto Pennsylvania Avenue headed toward the White House, more than 5,000 people had joined the march, said a police officer who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to give an estimate of the crowd size.

Adrian Fox, 22, tacked a sign onto his shirt that read “Ain’t I a woman?” Ms. Fox, who is Latina and transgender, said she hoped the march would allow marginalized racial, ethnic and gender groups to unite on common ground.

“The privilege of the majority affects us the same way,” Ms. Fox said.

The marchers made another stop at the Justice Department before heading to the Lincoln Memorial.

Although crowds did not appear to be as big as 50 years ago — or even as large as over the weekend — there appeared to be some problems gaining access to the mall.

Carl Stewart, 43, of Washington, said he waited in line for two hours at the main entrance before giving up.

“We’re going to walk up here to see what we can hear,” said Mr. Stewart, as he and his wife headed toward the Lincoln Memorial along the sidewalk next to Constitution Avenue. 

Mr. Stewart said the delay was because of a lack of metal detectors. He saw only six of them.