ATLANTA — Hundreds of people gathered to celebrate “Social Justice Sunday” at one of Atlanta’s most iconic churches.
It’s in honor of the 62nd anniversary of the March on Washington.
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Inside Big Bethel A.M.E. Church, there’s much singing, praise dancing, and remembering.
Remembering August 28th, 1963: the day another great man, Martin Luther King, Jr., raised up a half mile from the church, spoke with uncommon eloquence for 17 minutes, as the nation’s Capitol dome loomed before him.
A young Ambassador Andrew Young was there.
“It was really one of the quietest, calmest, most peaceful demonstrations I’d ever been in because everybody was really afraid this would turn violent,” Young told Channel 2’s Bryan Mims.
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Then the young orator from Sweet Auburn would veer from script to improvise the “I Have a Dream” speech.
His dream of letting freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia and every hill and molehill of Mississippi.
“Has the dream been fulfilled?” Mims asked Young.
“Overwhelmingly, but not completely,” Young answered.
Young reflects on this last election.
“I’m not sure what it meant. For some, it meant turning back the clock. But overall, I think the nation has made, in cities like Atlanta, has made phenomenal strides,” Young said.
As the pastor of Big Bethel A.M.E Church, Reverend Dr. Jonathan C. Augustine sees it, Black history itself is under siege. He points to the president’s attack on the Smithsonian museums as Exhibit A.
“It’s very important that the troops galvanize. That we organize and come together here at the city hall of Sweet Auburn,” Augustine said.
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