Monday, August 31, 2020

Jerry Falwell Jr. resigns from Liberty University. Again.

Jerry Falwell Jr. speaks at the 2nd Annual Turning Point USA Winter Gala at the Mar-A-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Florida, on Dec. 18, 2019. Photo by Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons
August 24, 2020



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(RNS) — Jerry Falwell Jr., the embattled president of Liberty University and one of President Donald Trump's earliest and most vocal supporters, has resigned from the evangelical Christian university founded by his father.
On Monday (Aug. 24), the first day of the fall semester at Liberty, Religion News Service learned from multiple sources close to the proceedings that Falwell had resigned.
Later that evening, a statement from Liberty confirmed Falwell had agreed to resign as president and from the university's board of directors, then withdrew his resignation after media reports about it.
Monday evening, however, Falwell told the Wall Street Journal that he had, in fact, sent his letter of resignation to the board. 
Falwell already was on an indefinite leave of absence from his roles as president and chancellor of the university following controversial posts on social media.
"Since that time, additional matters came to light that made it clear that it would not be in the best interest of the University for him to return from leave and serve as President," according to the statement from Liberty.
His resignation came within hours of the publication of a news story that alleged he and his wife, Becki Falwell, had a years-long sexual relationship with a business associate.
Falwell had agreed to to resign immediately after a meeting by the board's executive committee, according to the statement, but then "instructed his attorneys not to tender the letter for immediate resignation."
A spokesman for Liberty previously told RNS the board leadership has "been in discussion with Jerry Falwell and expect to be able to make a statement on Tuesday."
After news of his resignation first broke, Falwell told a Virginia business publication that he did not plan to leave the school. He also claimed his leave from the school was his idea, more of a sabbatical than a leave of absence.
“I don’t care what you call it. I’ve been at this for so many years and under so much stress, I decided I needed a three-month break."
Falwell had agreed to an indefinite leave earlier this month after posting, then deleting, a provocative Instagram photo of him posing with his arm around a woman at a party with their zippers down and midriffs showing.
After that post, Liberty University alumni and former teaching faculty at the school called for his permanent ouster, citing a long list of offensive statements by Falwell, who has been one of President Trump's staunchest allies.
Jerry Falwell Jr., right, answers a student’s question, along with his wife, Becki, at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia, on Nov. 28, 2018. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
Earlier Monday, Reuters published a story saying Falwell’s onetime business partner, Giancarlo Granda, a former pool attendant at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach Hotel, had a six-year relationship that involved sex with Becki Falwell while Jerry Falwell looked on.
“Becki and I developed an intimate relationship and Jerry enjoyed watching from the corner of the room,” Granda said in the Reuters story.
The Falwells and Granda later became business partners and offered Granda a share in a Miami youth hostel.
Colby Garman, pastor of the Pillar Church in Dumfries, Virginia, and a Liberty alumnus, last week published a letter signed by 50 Liberty alumni calling on Falwell's permanent removal, saying his behavior has embarrassed the school and its reputation. He reiterated today his call for Falwell's removal.
Commenting on Twitter, he said that the allegations about the Falwells are sad and, if true, would be "a reminder of just how deeply entangling sin can become."
Falwell, who since his father's death in 2007 has been president of Liberty University, one of the nation’s largest Christian schools, has greatly expanded the school and its offerings during his tenure.
Just last week, the board of trustees at the school met and decided to delay any decision about whether Falwell would be reinstated after his leave.
The Reuters story comes one day after the Washington Examiner published a story in which Falwell said he was suffering from depression because his wife had an affair with a family friend and that friend has been threatening to expose it.
"Over the course of the last few months, this person's behavior has reached a level that we have decided the only way to stop this predatory behavior is to go public," Falwell said in a statement published by the Examiner. 
"We have categorically rejected this person’s demands while dealing with him and this particular member of the media who seemed just as obsessed with the prurient, untrue aspects of this story, however fantastic."
Falwell did not name the friend in the Examiner story. He also said he was "not involved" in his wife and Granda's affair.
Reached by phone earlier Monday, Falwell told RNS he already had given his statement to the Washington Examiner and wouldn’t comment further. 
The allegations of a sexual threesome have been swirling for some time. Last year, Falwell allegedly sought out President Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen to help prevent the release of some racy personal photos, according to published reports. Falwell then denied Cohen’s account that he flew to Florida around 2015 and got the person with the Falwell photos to agree to destroy them.
Those who study U.S. evangelicals said that while churches and other institutions may look the other way when it comes to race, money or politics, sexual sins are not tolerated within that subculture. Many Christian schools, such as Liberty University, have honor codes that spell out what they consider to be Christian standards for sexual conduct.
"I don’t see how Falwell survives this," John Fea, a professor of American history at Messiah University and a frequent commentator on evangelicalism, said before news of Falwell's resignation broke. "He's done."
A group of students and alumni blamed the crisis in leadership on the school's board, saying it had been "derelict" in its duties in allowing Falwell to damage the spiritual vitality, academic quality and national reputation of the school. The group, called "Save71," suggested the school begin by removing the "beneficiaries of Falwell's inappropriate nepotism." It also proposed an independent investigation of claims of financial corruption. 
Falwell also made headlines when photos of Falwell and members of his family partying at a Miami Beach nightclub in 2014 surfaced. 
More recently, he apologized after tweeting images of a politician in blackface and Ku Klux Klan imagery.
(This story has been updated with additional statements from Falwell and Liberty.)


 The fall of Falwell: A timeline of the ups, downs and scandals of his Liberty University presidency


August 25, 2020

Emily McFarlan Miller
Jack Jenkins


(RNS) — News that Jerry Falwell Jr. resigned as president of Liberty University, which came on the heels of reports that he and his wife, Becki, were involved in a sexual tryst with a younger man, may have caught some by surprise: How could the successful scion of a renowned evangelical preacher abandon his post at the school his father founded?


But Falwell’s resignation is but the resolution of years of smaller scandals, some of which are directly connected to the circumstances surrounding his decision to step down as Liberty’s president.


Religion News Service takes a look back at some of these controversies, chronicling the rise and fall of Falwell’s career as president of Liberty University.


May 2007 — Jerry Falwell Jr. takes over
Falwell becomes president and chancellor of Liberty University after his father, the Rev. Jerry Falwell Sr., dies at his desk. The elder Falwell, a prominent televangelist and political figure, had founded the evangelical Christian university in Lynchburg, Virginia.

 2012 — The Falwells meet Granda
Jerry Falwell Jr. and Becki Falwell reportedly meet Giancarlo Granda, then a 21-year-old pool attendant and Florida International University student, while vacationing in Miami. The Falwells go into business with Granda, purchasing a South Beach youth hostel.

September 2013 — Growth at Liberty
Spurred in part by a shift to online education, Falwell steadily builds up Liberty’s financial prowess, eventually accumulating an endowment of more than $1 billion. Largely due to massive enrollment in the online program, the school eventually claims the mantle of the largest Christian university in the country until it was dethroned by Grand Canyon University in 2018.

2015 — Liberty becomes a popular conservative speaking spot
Liberty emerges as a popular spot for conservative speakers and presidential hopefuls in 2015, beginning when Texas Sen. Ted Cruz launches his White House bid from the school’s campus. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush speaks a few months later at Liberty’s commencement, and Trump makes a stop early the following year. The trend continues into Trump’s first term, with the president speaking at the school multiple times. Although Democratic candidate and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders also addresses at the school in 2015, some students grow frustrated with the mostly Republican slate of speakers.

December 2015 — ‘End those Muslims’
After the San Bernardino, California, shootings, Falwell sparks one of his first national controversies after encouraging students to carry concealed weapons during the school’s weekly Convocation and expressing anti-Muslim sentiments. “I’ve always thought if more good people had concealed carry permits, then we could end those Muslims before they walked in,” he says.

January 2016 — Trump endorsement
Falwell becomes one of Donald Trump’s earliest and most outspoken evangelical supporters when he endorses Trump’s presidential campaign. The endorsement comes a week after Trump’s appearance at Liberty, during which Falwell compared him to his father, saying both were men who spoke their minds, often in fearlessly brash ways. A longtime Liberty board member resigns over the endorsement and a number of students publish a statement expressing their disappointment — foreshadowing future departures and statements from Liberty students, staff and alumni.
2016 — Athletic center deal
Falwell reportedly signs a deal selling an 18-acre athletic center on Liberty property to the Falwells’ personal fitness trainer, Benjamin Crosswhite. The Falwells reportedly had had personal training sessions with Crosswhite since 2011, when he was a 23-year-old Liberty graduate. The deal raises some eyebrows, according to Reuters, because Liberty adjusted the price and financed the purchase for Crosswhite, which it has defended as beneficial to the university.
April 2019 — Protests and censorship
Opposition to Falwell’s affiliation with Trump grows so fevered that an evangelical author, Jonathan Martin, calls for a prayer protest of Liberty University and Falwell. When Martin is arrested at Liberty and removed by campus police while visiting a band, evangelicals host a “Red Letter Revival” demonstration in Lynchburg, Virginia. Liberty student journalists attempt to cover the rally but say they are personally censored by Falwell, preventing them from doing so. News of the censorship reportedly results in Liberty officials taking full control of the student newspaper.
May 2019 — Michael Cohen and photos
Former Trump fixer Michael Cohen claims he was asked by Falwell to help him destroy racy photos described as images typically kept “between husband and wife.” The photos were reportedly kept by a third party who destroyed them after Cohen intervened on Falwell’s behalf. However, Cohen is recorded saying he kept one of the images. Falwell denies such compromising photos exist
.
October 2019 — Settlement with Bello
Falwell reportedly settles a lawsuit with Gordon Bello, who claimed the Falwells promised him and a family member a stake in a Miami hostel business venture that the Liberty president and his wife purchased in 2013. Also involved in the hostel was Granda, and the lawsuit reportedly devolved into a debate over compromising photographs that could be used as leverage against the Falwells.

May 2020 — Blackface/Northam tweet and fallout
Falwell tweets an image of a mask emblazoned with a picture of Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam in blackface. Several African American faculty members and student athletes leave in protest, citing what they describe as the school’s long-standing issues with race and sexuality. Falwell later apologizes.

Aug. 7, 2020 — Instagram scandal(s)
Falwell agrees to an indefinite leave of absence from his roles as president and chancellor of Liberty after posting — and then quickly deleting — a photo on Instagram with his arm around a woman who was not his wife, pants unzipped, midriffs and underwear visible, glass of what he described as “black water” in hand. Falwell says the photo was “meant in good fun,” but it isn’t his only controversial activity on social media. Instances of him “liking” Instagram photos of women in bikinis come to light over the following days. He also previously called a Liberty parent a “dummy” in a tweet. Demands for him to resign or be removed intensify.

Aug. 24, 2020 — Falwell resigns. Eventually.
Falwell resigns after a bombshell report in Reuters alleges a past sexual relationship involving Falwell, Becki Falwell and Granda. The day before, Jerry Falwell had released a statement to the Washington Examiner claiming Becki Falwell had an affair with Granda “in which I was not involved.” In a daylong tug of war with the university, Falwell withdraws his resignation before submitting it again late that night.
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Trump’s 2020 religious attack on Biden harks back to 1800

John Adams, left, and Thomas Jefferson. Images courtesy of Creative Commons
August 11, 2020

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(RNS) — In case you hadn’t heard, last week President Donald Trump attacked his presumptive Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, on religious grounds. “No religion,” declared Trump. “No anything. Hurt the Bible. Hurt God. He’s against God.”
It’s been 220 years since the religion card was played so bigly in an American presidential campaign. The precedent is more apt than you might think.
The election of 1800 pitted the incumbent president, John Adams, against his old-friend-turned-bitter-rival Vice President Thomas Jefferson. In the two-party system that had emerged in the 1790s, Adams was the Federalist, Jefferson the Democratic-Republican. The Federalist case against Jefferson centered on charges that he was a “Jacobin,” a radical on the order of the French revolutionaries he had admired since serving as American ambassador to France in the late 1780s.
In a series of newspaper articles published in 1798, Alexander Hamilton attacked those revolutionaries for trying to “undermine the venerable pillars that support the edifice of civilized society,” not least by “the attempt ... to destroy all religious opinion, and to pervert a whole people to Atheism.”
Hamilton claimed that Jefferson was, like them, an atheist who, with the help of fellow American Jacobins, would pursue the same agenda if elected. In the words of another Federalist writer, the choice was clear: “GOD—AND A RELIGIOUS PRESIDENT ... [or] JEFFERSON AND NO GOD.”
President Donald Trump speaks in the James Brady Briefing Room on March 23, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
To be sure, Biden, the cradle Catholic who carries a rosary wherever he goes, is a far religious cry from Jefferson, the dyed-in-the-wool deist who created a cut-and-paste version of the Gospels with the supernatural material stripped out. But last week’s claim by Trump that Biden is “following the radical left agenda” harks back to the accusation that Jefferson was following the Jacobin playbook.
If Trump himself lacks the historical awareness to recognize this, his legal enabler, Attorney General Bill Barr, is on the case. Referring to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the 18th-century philosopher whose ideas helped inspire the French Revolution, Barr informed Fox News host Mark Levin on Sunday (Aug. 9) that the Democrats have become the “Rousseau-ian Revolutionary Party that believes in tearing down the system.”
Like the Jacobins, the Dems have, in Barr’s view, replaced Christianity with their own infidel faith. “It’s a secular religion,” he said. “It’s a substitute for religion. They view their political opponents as evil, because we stand in the way of their progressive utopia that they’re trying to reach.”
Of course, this characterization ignores the fact that the Democrats’ most loyal constituents, African Americans, happen to be among the most religious segments of American society. Similarly, Jefferson enjoyed the strong support of the country’s fast-growing evangelical population — the Baptists in particular.
Then as now, evangelicals were deeply concerned about religious liberty, but unlike now, for them that meant the greatest possible separation of church and state — a Jeffersonian position if ever there was one. With some justice, they regarded the Federalist campaign against Jefferson as an effort to establish a de facto religious test for federal office.  
Former Vice President Joe Biden addresses a virtual gathering of the Progressive National Baptist Convention on Aug. 6, 2020. Video screengrab
Unlike Trump, John Adams did not himself attack Jefferson for irreligion. And unlike Biden, who called Trump’s attack “shameful,” Jefferson did not publicly respond to the attacks. As he wrote to James Monroe, “As to the calumny of Atheism, I am so broken to calumnies of every kind ... that I entirely disregard it.”
As for Alexander Hamilton, with Jefferson becoming president in 1802 he cooked up a plan to “combat our political foes” by creating “The Christian Constitutional Society.” It was to be a membership organization dedicated to supporting Christianity and the Constitution by disseminating federalist propaganda, supporting federalist philanthropic exercises and electing “fit men” to public office.
The following year, Hamilton was killed in his duel with Aaron Burr. But for that, Jerry Falwell Sr., Pat Robertson, Tony Perkins et al. might have had an organizational precedent to look back to.
Mark Silk is Professor of Religion in Public Life at Trinity College and director of the college's Leonard E. Greenberg Center for the Study of Religion in Public Life. He is a Contributing Editor of the Religion News Service
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‘Service to Satan!’ Anti-masker has public meltdown at Alaska Walmart after employees enforce COVID rules

August 30, 2020 By David Edwards
Angry man shouts at Walmart employees in Alaska (Twitter/screen grab)

A man at an Alaska Walmart had a public meltdown because he did not want to wear a mask.

Video of the incident was posted on social media by the Twitter account “Fifty Shades of Whey.”

“Get back from your highway to Hell!” the man shouts at a Black employee as the video begins.

“Have a good day,” another man says to the angry customer, who appears to be leaving the building.

At that point, the man turns and accuses store employees of “blind ignorance.”

“You don’t have the ability to even come up with your own fucking ideas!” the man shouts. “Are you exercising your rights as a private company [to refuse service]?”

“Yes,” someone answers.

“Sir, you don’t have to yell,” another staffer advises.

“I am choosing to yell! And you cannot stop me!” the man screams before holding up a middle finger and accusing the employees of being “in service to Satan.”

“Have a good day, sir,” a woman tells the man.

“I have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” the man rants. “My happiness is best served by standing in your face and saying you’re a fool and wrong and have no authority over me!”

After the man calls another employee a “bitch,” the video ends.

Watch the video below.
Anti-masker in Alaska gets kicked out of Walmart & has a public meltdown pic.twitter.com/wymrh10XZk
— Fifty Shades of Whey (@davenewworld_2) August 30, 2020
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Man Who Famously Died From Covid Says Covid Isn't Very Deadly


Herman Cain (center) attends a rally for President Donald Trump at the BOK Center on June 20, 2020 in Tulsa, Oklahoma.Photo: Nicholas Kamm (Getty Images)

Former presidential hopeful Herman Cain died of covid-19 on July 30, but that hasn’t stopped the man from tweeting. In fact, Cain (or whoever is running his account, if you don’t believe in ghosts) has been tweeting about a subject near and dear to his lifeless heart: How the coronavirus pandemic is overblown and not a real threat to Americans


“It looks like the virus is not as deadly as the mainstream media first made it out to be,” the Herman Cain Twitter account tweeted on Sunday, linking to an article with a lot of misleading information.

Cain, a longtime businessman and figure in Republican politics, died a month after being diagnosed with covid-19, and while Republicans insist that Cain didn’t contract coronavirus when he attended a huge Trump rally in Oklahoma on June 20, it seems like the most plausible explanation. Cain received his covid diagnosis on June 29, roughly a week after attending the rally in Tulsa.

Cain didn’t wear a mask at the indoor event, and didn’t appear to practice social distancing of any kind, based on several photos taken by news photographers in the arena. Cain even tweeted against making masks mandatory at large events before he publicly announced his diagnosis on Twitter.

“Masks will not be mandatory for the event, which will be attended by President Trump. PEOPLE ARE FED UP!” Cain tweeted on July 2 about the Sturgis motorcycle rally that has since been linked to over 100 cases in eight states across the country. Notably, Trump never did show up to South Dakota for the rally, as Cain had promised.

At least 5.9 million Americans have been diagnosed with covid-19 and more than 183,000 have died from the disease, according to the latest figures from the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker. The covid pandemic has hit the U.S. harder than any other wealthy nation in the world, thanks largely to President Trump’s mishandling of the health crisis from day one.

The article that Cain’s account linked to over the weekend uses the headline “CDC Now Says 94% of Covid Deaths Had an Underlying Condition,” and several far-right websites have run with the claim that only 6% of the covid-19 death toll is real. In reality, it’s still accurate to say that people died from covid, even if they had an underlying condition.

As political commentator Jeet Heer put it, “Weirdly enough if you stab a hemophilic and they die, the cause of death is listed as murder and not hemophilia.” And the same could be said of any other ailment that may have afflicted people who were ultimately killed by covid-19. People can live long and relatively healthy lives, even as they struggle with something like diabetes. But if a diabetic becomes infected with covid, they stand a much worse chance of surviving.

The U.S. still has a long road ahead, as most states try to reopen and restore some semblance of normalcy while relying on individual actions, rather than strong public health measures, to combat the disease. Masks are good and important, but they can’t be the only tool that a government uses to fight a pandemic.

The infection rate for covid in places like Florida, Texas, and Arizona has flattened, but there’s been a resurgence in places like Minnesota, North Dakota, and Iowa. Minnesota posted a record for the state on Saturday, racking up over 1,000 new cases, and Sunday wasn’t much better, with 934 new cases. Iowa recorded a whopping 2,579 cases on Friday alone, with a positivity rate of 79%, according to The Gazette. Anything over 10% is widely considered to be a completely uncontrolled pandemic.

And all of this is in line with what public health experts have warned for months. The virus is likely to just migrate from one part of the country to the next until a vaccine is available and actually deployed. Former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb told CBS News yesterday that a vaccine rollout was likely something that wouldn’t happen until next year.


The covid-19 death toll is real, as anyone can see from the number of excess deaths over any average year. The New York Times reported in mid-August that the death toll is likely higher than the official tally by at least 60,000 people. Covid-19 is not a hoax, and Herman Cain should know that better than anyone. Or, at least Herman Cain’s ghost should.
Matt Novak
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Matt Novak is the editor of Gizmodo's Paleofuture blog
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Donald Trump Jr. Attacks Biden's Fitness Amid Questions Of His Own Mental State

By Arthur Villasanta
08/31/20

Donald Trump Jr. Calls Joe Biden the 'Loch Ness Monster Of The Swamp'

KEY POINTS

Donald Trump Jr. again assails Joe Biden's fitness amid questions about drug use during his RNC speech

President's son denies charges, blames bad lighting before launching attacks on Democratic nomine

He alleges Biden's wife "almost had to carry him off the stage" after his acceptance speech

Donald Trump Jr. has again taken to trolling Democratic challenger Joe Biden's fitness to hold his father's office while also defending against questions about his own mental state.

Trump Jr. appeared on FOX News' "Life, Liberty & Levin" to claim that the 77-year-old Biden's health record is "pretty dismal" and question his ability to do the job of 74-year-old father.

"The difference is, we're not entrusting the average grandparents with the nuclear football, Mark," Trump Jr. told host Mark Levin. "We're not entrusting them with the greatest economy of the world. We're not entrusting them with 350 million people now."

Trump Jr. also repeated many of the allegations he made against Biden in his controversial speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday. His glassy-eyed demeanor and profuse sweating prompted talk-show hosts and internet innuendo to speculate that his blank stare and combative disposition were because he was on drugs.

"I guess there must have been something with the lighting," Trump Jr. told "Fox & Friends" before taking a shot at Biden's son, Hunter, who has a history of battling drug addiction. “... It was pretty ridiculous. When they can’t attack the delivery, when they can’t attack the substance, they gotta attack something.”

Trump Jr. chose to attack Biden's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention to drive home his point, saying the presidency requires more than just "delivering a teleprompter speech."
"That's sort of his thing. After 50 years in D.C., you should be able to do that. But then you see, his wife almost had to carry him off the stage," he said.

"You know, is this guy going to wake up at 3 in the morning to take a phone call? Is this guy going to be capable of doing that? And if we're not sure, should someone other than me be asking this question?"

Trump Jr.'s remarks follow Biden's widely praised acceptance speech at the DNC. Biden called for an America united in a firm determination to unite in love and hope.

"Let us begin you and I together one nation under God, united in our love for America, united in our love for each other," said Biden.

After Biden's speech, Fox News host Chris Wallace praised Biden's acceptance speech as an "enormously effective" address that "blew a hole" in questions about his mental health

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‘How dare we not vote?’ Black voters organize after DC march

By KAT STAFFORD August 29, 2020
Walter Carter, 74, of Woodbridge, Va., who attended the original March on Washington, attends 2020's March on Washington, Friday Aug. 28, 2020, at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, on the 57th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech. "This March is a celebration anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington," says Carter, "and the issues are very similar even though so much time has passed." (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)


WASHINGTON (AP) — Tears streamed down Brooke Moreland’s face as she watched tens of thousands gather on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to decry systemic racism and demand racial justice in the wake of several police killings of Black Americans.

But for the Indianapolis mother of three, the fiery speeches delivered Friday at the commemoration of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom also gave way to one central message: Vote and demand change at the ballot box in November.

“As Black people, a lot of the people who look like us died for us to be able to sit in public, to vote, to go to school and to be able to walk around freely and live our lives,” the 31-year-old Moreland said. “Every election is an opportunity, so how dare we not vote after our ancestors fought for us to be here?”





That determination could prove critical in a presidential election where race is emerging as a flashpoint. President Donald Trump, at this past week’s Republican National Convention, emphasized a “law and order” message aimed at his largely white base of supporters. His Democratic rival, Joe Biden, has expressed empathy with Black victims of police brutality and is counting on strong turnout from African Americans to win critical states such as North Carolina, Florida, Pennsylvania and Michigan.





As the campaign enters its latter stages, there’s an intensifying effort among African Americans to transform frustration over police brutality, systemic racism and the disproportionate toll of the coronavirus into political power. Organizers and participants said Friday’s march delivered a much needed rallying cry to mobilize.

“If we do not vote in numbers that we’ve never ever seen before and allow this administration to continue what it is doing, we are headed on a course for serious destruction,” Martin Luther King III told The Associated Press before his rousing remarks, delivered 57 years after his father’s famous “I Have A Dream” speech. “I’m going to do all that I can to encourage, promote, to mobilize and what’s at stake is the future of our nation, our planet. What’s at stake is the future of our children.”

As speakers implored attendees to “vote as if our lives depend on it,” the march came on the heels of yet another shooting by a white police officer of a Black man – 29-year-old Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last Sunday — sparking demonstrations and violence that left two dead



“We need a new conversation … you act like it’s no trouble to shoot us in the back,” the Rev. Al Sharpton said. “Our vote is dipped in blood. We’re going to vote for a nation that stops the George Floyds, that stops the Breonna Taylors.”

Navy veteran Alonzo Jones- Goss, who traveled to Washington from Boston, said he plans to vote for Biden because the nation has seen far too many tragic events that have claimed the lives of Black Americans and other people of color.

“I supported and defended the Constitution and I support the members that continue to do it today, but the injustice and the people that are losing their lives, that needs to end,” Jones-Goss, 28, said. “It’s been 57 years since Dr. King stood over there and delivered his speech. But what is unfortunate is what was happening 57 years ago is still happening today.”

Drawing comparisons to the original 1963 march, where participants then were protesting many of the same issues that have endured, National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial said it’s clear why this year’s election will be pivotal for Black Americans.

“We are about reminding people and educating people on how important it is to translate the power of protest into the power of politics and public policy change,” said Morial, who spoke Friday. “So we want to be deliberate about making the connection between protesting and voting.”

Nadia Brown, a Purdue University political science professor, agreed there are similarities between the situation in 1963 and the issues that resonate among Black Americans today. She said the political pressure that was applied then led to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and other powerful pieces of legislation that transformed the lives of African Americans. She’s hopeful this could happen again in November and beyond.




“There’s already a host of organizations that are mobilizing in the face of daunting things,” Brown said. “Bur these same groups that are most marginalized are saying it’s not enough to just vote, it’s not enough for the Democratic Party or the Republican Party to ask me for my vote. I’m going to hold these elected officials that are in office now accountable and I’m going to vote in November and hold those same people accountable. And for me, that is the most uplifting and rewarding part — to see those kind of similarities.”

But Brown noted that while Friday’s march resonated with many, it’s unclear whether it will translate into action among younger voters, whose lack of enthusiasm could become a vulnerability for Biden.

“I think there is already a momentum among younger folks who are saying not in my America, that this is not the place where they want to live, but will this turn into electoral gains? That I’m less clear on because a lot of the polling numbers show that pretty overwhelmingly, younger people, millennials and Gen Z’s are more progressive and that they are reluctantly turning to this pragmatic side of politics,” Brown said.

That was clear as the Movement for Black Lives also marked its own historic event Friday — a virtual Black National Convention that featured several speakers discussing pressing issues such as climate change, economic empowerment and the need for electoral justice.

“I don’t necessarily see elections as achieving justice per se because I view the existing system itself as being fundamentally unjust in many ways and it is the existing system that we are trying to fundamentally transform,” said Bree Newsome Bass, an activist and civil rights organizer, during the convention’s panel about electoral justice. “I do think voting and recognizing what an election should be is a way to kind of exercise that muscle.”
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