Rally Will Mark King’s ‘Dream’ Speech

Tens of thousands of people, including Michael S. Dukakis and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, are expected for a rally here Saturday to mark the 25th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, organizers said Thursday.

King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, Democratic presidential nominee Dukakis and civil rights leader Jackson plan to address the gathering. A spokesman for Republican presidential nominee George Bush said the vice president plans to campaign in Texas on Saturday.

An estimated 250,000 people marched in Washington on Aug. 28, 1963, an important day in the civil rights movement and the occasion of King’s most famous speech.

Five years ago, 250,000 people commemorated the 20th anniversary of the march.

Expects ‘Hordes’

The Rev. Joseph Lowery, who succeeded King as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said he expects “hordes” and “throngs” to march Saturday, but he declined to estimate the number.

The march in 1963 helped prompt passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“Something magic happened there. A new vision was shared with the American people. Whether that happens on Saturday or not, I don’t know,” said Andrew Young, who in 1963 was a young minister working with King and is now the mayor of Atlanta.

Since 1963, said Lowery, “everything has changed and nothing has changed. We have come a long, long way. But we still have a terribly long way to go, particularly in the arena of economic justice.”

Median Income of Blacks

Thirty-one years after King, Lowery and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy helped found the SCLC, the median income of blacks remains only 57% of the median white income, Lowery said.

“We won the battle about where you sit on the customer’s side of the lunch counter, but the battle about the cash register side of the lunch counter is still raging,” he said.

The march Saturday, Lowery said, “will emphasize jobs, peace, freedom and equality. We will leave Washington with an intensified voter registration effort. . . . It is our concern that we not allow the electricity of the (presidential) campaign of Jesse Jackson to stop.”