At the time, it was one of the largest mass gatherings Americans had ever seen.
The 1963 March on Washington, where more than 250,000 people came to listen to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, is perhaps the Civil Rights Movement’s highest watermark.
So why is it in Donald Trump’s mouth?
Credit: AJC file photo
Credit: AJC file photo
On Thursday, in a long-rambling news conference, the Republican presidential nominee claimed he drew more people to his Jan. 6 “Stop the Steal” rally — prior to protesters marching toward the Capitol and the riots that followed — than King’s speech, which was held on the National Mall.
“If you look at Martin Luther King, when he did his speech, his great speech,” Trump said, “and you look at ours, same real estate, same everything, same number of people. If not, we had more.”
Bernice King, the youngest daughter of King Jr., posted to the social media platform X to set the record straight, using a curious-looking photo of her father in her message.
“Absolutely not true,” she wrote. “I really wish that people would stop using my father to support fallacy.”
Although Bernice King has publicly endorsed Kamala Harris for president, the King Center has always tried to remain out of politics in news cycles and social media circles. It appears that has become more difficult when it comes to Trump.
In 2023, the family clashed with X over doctored images linking King’s ideas and philosophies to those of Trump, who has been criticized for describing those involved in the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests as terrorists. Trump has also taken heat for his perceived defense of white nationalists.
In an investigative report by the House Select Committee on the events of Jan. 6, Trump’s speech drew an estimated 53,000 people.
“But when you look at the exact same picture and everything is the same — because it was the fountains, the whole thing all the way back to go from Lincoln to Washington — and you look at it, and you look at the picture of my crowd ... we actually had more people,” he said.
Others have joined Bernice King in rebuking Trump’s crowd claims.
Immediately after he said it, the NAACP published a post on X with photos of the two crowds.
“Not only is that completely false, but here’s what is more important: MLK’s speech was about democracy. Trump’s was about tearing it down.”
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