Brian Corpening on the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington

Today is the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, also known as the momentous occasion of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial.  

Over the weekend, thousands of people joined members of King’s family to reprise that event at the same site in a 5-hour program that reflected on the progress, regression, and status of said dream.  

Brian Corpening, the associate vice president for Inclusive Excellence and chief diversity officer, also reflected on the occasion and noted that Black sociologist, writer and civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois died the day before that original march in 1963. 

“The march itself was powerful and significant. Not just because of King’s speech but because so many [people] from different faiths and backgrounds came to D.C. for the civil rights of all,” Corpening said. “We can’t lose sight of what those people came for. That’s the power of August 28, 1963.”

He invoked another champion of the rights of the oppressed — Frederick Douglass.

“A young man asked Douglass, who lived in D.C., for advice about what to do, and Douglass said ‘Agitate! Agitate! Agitate!’ Sometimes you have to stir things up. Nothing worthwhile comes easy.”