With D.C. march, Rayshard Brooks’ widow asks: When is enough, enough?

Miller will join the families of African Americans killed by law enforcement at the “Commitment March: Get Your Knee Off Our Necks” event in Washington. The march will be held on the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, during which the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech.

It is also the 65th anniversary of the 1955 brutal murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till, whose body was found in the Tallahatchie River in Money, Mississippi. Till was killed for allegedly flirting with a white woman.

There is a virtual March on Washington, hosted by the NAACP; and the in-person Commitment March: Get Your Knee Off Our Neck event, hosted by the National Action Network will include speakers such as the Rev. Al Sharpton; Martin Luther King III, and the Rev. Jamal Harrison Bryant, senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Stonecrest.

Miller, who has lost several relatives to COVID-19, wants justice and action.

She’s calling for people to vote, for officers to be held accountable for their actions, for police and criminal justice reform and for more programs for youth.

Even as organizers geared up for the event, protests were held in several cities, including Atlanta, in response to the police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, in front of his children in Kenosha, Wisconsin. His family attorney said he is paralyzed.

“Justice will be served and there will be change,” Miller said. “We will make a change. What we’re doing will not be in vain.”

Martin Luther King III, one of the organizers, has attended several March on Washington observances over the years.

This year however, there is a greater sense of urgency “because conditions appear to have escalated,” said King, former president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

“You think about the fact that we in Atlanta have had African American mayors, city council persons, school board members and county commissioners and judges for over 30 years and yet, in the city of Atlanta, the city that used to call itself the city too busy to hate, a police officer can still shoot a man in the back when he’s running away and you already have all the information.”

He said his dad spoke about police brutality more than five decades ago and today the nation is still grappling with the problem.

Other issues are likely to arise as well.

While President Trump, he said, cannot be blamed for COVID-19, he can be blamed for how his administration has mishandled the national response to the pandemic.

“In this climate where you’ve got that factor and you’ve got police brutality and misconduct and you have the opportunity to change leadership because there is an election, that makes it even more important for us to gather.”

King has seen positive steps, however, pointing to the recent decision of multiple professional athletes to sit out games in protest.

“We have never, ever seen professional athletes decide they are not going to play,” he said. “That’s huge.”

In Stonecrest, New Birth Missionary Baptist Church considered taking buses to Washington, D.C. but decided against it because of the pandemic and concerns about social distancing, though many members plan to go on their own, said Bryant.

Bryant, who is scheduled to speak at the march, said the march needs to leave attendees with an agenda and that it becomes clear to the nation what African Americans are seeking.

He said he wants to see a level playing field.

“We claim that this is a place of liberty and justice for all, but African Americans can’t find it,” whether it’s policing or the economy.

In the heat of a presidential election, both Democrats and Republicans need to have a “clear and precise” path forward for minorities.