Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) is holding a public rally from 4 to 6 PM at the Lincoln Memorial’s reflecting pool steps on April 4, 2009 – the day that Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968. See link and below for rally logistics.)
We will address the disgraceful resurgence of racial supremacism as documented in the Southern Poverty Law Center’s reports, ask for signatures to our online petition rejecting supremacism, and call for a new direction in fighting racial and other supremacism. We challenge those racial supremacists who would seek to promote the hate of the past and the supremacist lie that denies that all men and women are created equal. We plan to tell those racial supremacists who seek to rebuild a network of racial-based hatred — NEVER AGAIN!
Why Me Must Challenge Supremacism Now
As we face challenges with our economy and unrest, there are those supporters of racial hate and supremacism who seek to gain new members to their ranks of racial supremacist organizations. There are those who seek to leverage the fact that our president is an African-American to further division and hatred among us. As the Southern Poverty Law Center’s reports show, there are those who have the goal to expand a network of racial supremacist groups around America.
April is a month where the threat of racial supremacism is frequently remembered. It was on April 4, 1968 in Tennessee where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Also in Tennessee, white supremacists Paul Schlesselman and Daniel Cowart are scheduled for trial this April for their alleged plots to assassinate Barack Obama and to kill numerous African-Americans. (Schlesselman and Cowart had already attacked an African-American church in Tennessee in October.)
April 14 is the date that white supremacist John Wilkes Booth murdered our President Abraham Lincoln. April 19 is the date that white supremacist-linked terrorist Timothy McVeigh bombed the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City in 1995 killing 168 and injuring 800. April 20 is when white supremacist Neo-Nazis celebrate the birthdate of their idol Adolf Hitler.
But although April has been remembered as a month where the threat of racial supremacists has been remembered, April is also a month where the forces of hate and supremacism have been challenged.
April is also the month when the Confederate Army and the forces of slavery surrendered. April is also the month when the Civil Rights bills of 1866 and 1968 were signed. April is the month that slavery was abolished here in the District of Columbia. April is the month where apartheid white supremacists lost their control of South Africa. Most importantly, April is the month when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his last speech to America with a voice of courage, a voice of conviction, and a voice of hope about our commitment to equality and liberty. On April 3, he said that “I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!”
He saw that we are more than our fears, more than our divisions. He saw that despite the most concerted efforts of those who sought to fill our hearts with hate, humanity still held love and fellowship in the core of its heart. He saw that it was that our common bond of humanity, of our shared inalienable rights of equality and liberty, that would get us there to a new hope for all people.
Furthermore, we know that those racial supremacist organizations that claim to represent Christian beliefs do not represent the love, hope, tolerance, and peace that Christianity calls for. We call for those who believe in Jesus Christ (Yeshua) to also use the occasion as an opportunity to publicly demonstrate those values, and to publicly reject racial supremacism and hate. At 6 PM, at the closure of our public rally, when Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968, we will ask for prayers to remove the hate and fear from the hearts of those who seek to promote racial supremacism.
So we ask you to join us in hope and love, in peace and fellowship, defiant as free men and women of all kinds, standing together this April to make our own statement in history. We ask you to join us this April 4, 2009 to tell those who seek to divide us by hate and fear and those who seek to spread supremacism among us — that they will not win and that we will never surrender on humanity’s inalienable rights of equality and liberty.
We are not afraid.
Rally Logistics:
Our rally will be held from 4 to 6 PM on Saturday April 4, at the reflecting pool steps in front of the Lincoln Memorial (not the Lincoln Memorial steps). We are recommending that attendees take public transportation via the Washington subway to either the Foggy Bottom metro stop and walk south to the Lincoln Memorial, or the Smithsonian metro stop and walk west along the National Mall and 17th street to Lincoln Memorial (see details below).
Important note – the reflecting pool steps where our rally will be located is on the east side of the 23rd street that goes between the Lincoln Memorial itself and the reflecting pool in front of it.
The Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC is on the far end of the National Mall and bisects 23rd Street (see PDF of map). It can be reached from Constitution Avenue from Henry Bacon Drive and from Independence Avenue from Henry French Drive. Limited parking may be available on Independence Avenue or Madison Avenue near the National Mall, or at the Jefferson Memorial. However, parking in Washington DC is scarce, and using public transportation is strongly recommended.
DC Subway and Walking Directions
Walking from Foggy Bottom subway stop to Lincoln Memorial
— Map in walking from Foggy Bottom to Lincoln Memorial
* Exit station using main exit
* Walk approx. 7 blocks S on 23rd St NW. (stay on 23rd Street essentially until you get within visual range of Lincoln Memorial)
* Turn right on Lincoln Memorial Circle SW.
* Walk a short distance W on Lincoln Memorial Circle SW.
Walking from Smithsonian subway stop to Lincoln Memorial
* Exit station using 12TH & JEFFERSON (THE MALL) exit
* Walk approx. 2 blocks W on Jefferson Dr SW.
* Turn right on 14th St NW.
* Walk approx. 1 block N on 14th St NW.
— Map in walking from Smithsonian subway to Washington Monument (en route)
* Keep walking past Washington Monument west in the direction of the Lincoln Memorial
* Cross 17th Street going west
* Walk past National World War II Monument west in the direction of the Lincoln Memorial
* Continue to walk down Washington Mall in the direction of the Lincoln Memorial
* NOTE: that our rally will be on the side of the reflecting pool nearest the Lincoln Memorial
Lincoln Memorial Information Center
23rd Street, NW
202-426-6841
National Park Web Site Directions to the Lincoln Memorial
Lincoln Memorial is part of the National Mall and Memorial Parks. The memorial stands in West Potomac Park, near the convergence of numerous roads from throughout the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. In terms of placement, the memorial occupies a highly symbolic and important position as the western “bookend” of the National Mall, while the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial provides the eastern component at the foot of Capitol Hill, two miles to the east.
Car
Interstate 395 provides access to the Mall from the South. Interstate 495, New York Avenue, Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway, George Washington Memorial Parkway, and the Cabin John Parkway provide access from the North. Interstate 66, U.S. Routes 50 and 29 provide access from the West. U.S. Routes 50, 1, and 4 provide access from the East.
Public Transportation
There are several Metro train and bus routes from the suburban areas surrounding the city. In addition to Washington, D.C. public transportation, adjacent state and commonwealth transportation authorities offer train service from area cites to the Nation’s Capital. Consult the Public Transportation link for additional details.
Parking
General visitor parking is available along Ohio Drive, SW between the Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson Memorials. Bus parking is available primarily along Ohio Drive, SW near the Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson Memorials and along Ohio Drive, SW in East Potomac Park. See the Maps section for a detailed understanding of these areas.
There is limited handicapped parking at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt and World War II Memorials and near the Washington Monument and the Thomas Jefferson, Lincoln, Korean War Veterans, and Vietnam Veterans Memorials; otherwise, parking is extremely scarce in Washington, D.C.
More About Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.)
https://www.realcourage.org/about/
Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) is a non-partisan, citizen activist group with the goal to defend the inalienable human rights of equality and liberty as defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in the American Declaration of Independence. Our objective is defend such human rights of equality for all people. We believe that everyone deserves equal rights. As individuals responsible for equality and liberty, we challenge those who would justify supremacism, intolerance, and hatred, and seek to ensure that all of humanity’s inalienable rights of equality and liberty and protected, as a shared consensus among all people.
Please see our list of planned events and petitions designed to defy supremacists and let them know that we plan to stop their attack on equality and liberty.
For more information on how you can help, email us at realpublic@earthlink.net