June 4, 2020

At George Floyd Memorial Service, Al Sharpton Announces March on Washington to End Police Brutality

The march will take place on the 57th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Julio Cortez/AP

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On August 28—the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington, at which Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech—Americans will once again gather in the nation’s capital to protest racism. Civil rights activist Al Sharpton announced the new march, which will focus on ending police brutality, while speaking at a memorial service for George Floyd in Minneapolis on Thursday. As he spoke, Martin Luther King III—who will be involved in organizing the march—sat clapping in the front row.

“Just like in one era we had to fight slavery, another era we had to fight Jim Crow, another era we dealt with voting rights,” Sharpton said, “this is the era to deal with policing and criminal justice.”

At Floyd’s memorial service, Sharpton led mourners in an 8-minute, 46-second moment of silence—the amount of time former police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd’s neck, killing him. Chauvin has since been charged with second-degree murder. Three other officers involved in Floyd’s death are also facing felony charges.

“We need to go back to Washington and stand up—Black, white, Latino, Arab—in the shadows of Lincoln, and tell them this is the time to stop this,” Sharpton said.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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