Members of the Bethlehem and Allentown chapters of the NAACP traveled to Washington, D.C., this past weekend to observe the 50th anniversary of March on Washington when Dr. Martin Luther King gave his history-changing "I Have A Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

According to Dan Bosket, president of the Allentown chapter, 108 people booked seats on the two buses that left the parking lot at Redner's Markets on Airport Road early Saturday morning.

One of those making the trip was Artie Ravitz, of Easton. Ravitz was at the March on Washington 50 years ago.

"I sat on the edge of the Reflecting Pool with my feet dangling in the water as I listened to Dr. King's speech," Ravitz said, who, as a young man, was a devoted follower of the civil rights movement.

Civil Rights still important

He said he wanted to attend the 50th anniversary ceremony because working for civil rights is still important.

"It's more important than the first time because the Supreme Court is nullifying parts of the Voting Rights Act," Ravitz said. "The Supreme Court doesn't care about the rights of black people and brown people."

The Aug. 28, 1963 march was part of a larger civil rights movement; 1963 was also the 100th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln's signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, ending slavery in the United States.

Earlier that year, President John F. Kennedy announced he would push for a Civil Rights Act. Kennedy was assassinated Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas, Texas and didn't live to see the Act signed into law by his successor President Lyndon Johnson.

The Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965. The 1963 March on Washington was a major factor in these two laws passed.

Remember

the struggle

Esther Lee, president of the Bethlehem Chapter of the NAACP, said commemoration of the "March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom" Aug. 28, 1963, is important so people of this generation remember the struggle African-Americans have endured.

Recently, she decried what she calls a "genocide of our [black] youth." She said the future of African-American families is at stake.

She said children from neighborhoods in economic strife who then don't do well in school become candidates for jail. This "pipeline," according to Lee, disrupts families.

Approximately 12 to 13 percent of the American population is African-American, but they make up 40.1 percent of the almost 2.1 million male inmates in jail or prison as of 2009, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

"I fear that there will not be a family in the future," Lee said when talking about the effect of having so many black men in jail or prison.

Challenging

morality

The March on Washington 50 years ago challenged the morality of "Jim Crow" laws that pervaded life in most southern states.

Jim Crow was systematic legal discrimination designed to keep African-Americans in a second-class citizen status.

Included in its many injustices were laws that effectively restricted or denied voting rights to African-Americans. This, according to some civil rights advocates, is an issue that has resurfaced today in the form of various voter ID laws passed by Republican dominated state legislatures.

Fredrick Montgomery, an educator with the Allentown School District, attended last weekend's event in Washington D.C. He said commemoration of the March on Washington is important to today's generation.

Montgomery's trip to Washington on a "jam-packed" bus resulted in what he called a "grand time, a memorable experience."

Races and cultures

"Emotions were running high," Montgomery said after his trip. "There were people from every walk of life there." He said it was an example of how people from different races and cultures "can love each other."

He said he was pleased to see a significant number of young people go on the trip.

"As an educator it's important to me to see us learn to listen, bridge cultural gaps and be able to work things out," Montgomery said. "We have no alternative except to work with diversity."

"Important history has occurred," Montgomery said. "Tears, sweat and blood were shed by those that fought against oppression. But, repression still occurs for whatever reason."

"Many people put their lives on the line white, black, Jews, gentile, young and old," Montgomery said.

"It's important to step back and understand what happened and to discover how you can make it better."