By Canadian Press

Blake shooting adds fresh urgency to Black Lives Matter march in Washington

Aug 28, 2020 | 12:53 PM

WASHINGTON — Protesters are gathering today in the heart of the U.S. capital for a peaceful push to end to systemic racism — a long-planned event taking on extra poignancy in the wake of Sunday’s police shooting of Jacob Blake.

The “Get Your Knee off our Necks” march, organized by firebrand social-justice activist Rev. Al Sharpton, was originally planned in the wake of the police killing in May of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

It was timed to mark the 57-year anniversary or Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, which took place in the same location at the height of the civil-rights movement in the U.S.

But Sunday’s shooting of Blake, a 29-year-old father of three who took seven bullets in the back from police in Kenosha, Wisc., has given today’s protest an extra sense of urgency.

Sharpton says he expects 50,000 people to gather for the main event at the Lincoln Memorial, which will feature guests including attorney Ben Crump, who represents both the Floyd and Blake families, as well as family members and King’s eldest son, Martin Luther King III.

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Organizers originally expected as many as 100,000 people to take part, but were forced to limit participation as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 28, 2020.

The Canadian Press