August 28, more than just another day for Black Americans

August 28thย is not just another day. At least not for black America. It’sย a day to honor, remember and to reflect on the significant historical events that happened on this date.

On this day in 1955, fourteen-year-oldย Emmett Till was lynchedย in Money, Mississippi.

Exactly eight years later in 1963, over 250,000 thousand marched on Washington to demand all Americansโ€™ right to full citizenship and free lives, without Jim Crow and without the constant threat of violence. On the same day, the world came to here a eloquent young preacher, by the name of ย Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., talk about freedom, jobs and a dream. It was then when hundreds of thousands witnessed the famous “I Have a Dream” speech.ย ย Dr. Kingโ€™s dream was of an America where โ€œall of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholicsโ€ would join hands and unite in song seemed gloriously achievable.

In 2005, hundreds of thousands of people fled the Gulf Coast as a killer hurricane named Katrina was about to make landfall.

In 2008, a black man stood on a stage in Denver and accepted his partyโ€™s nomination for president. That man, went on to become the 44th president of the United States of America, Barack Hussein Obama.

And in 2017, the state will unveil a statue of an African-American hero, Martin Luther King, Jr.ย on the grounds of the state Capitol.

Academy Award-winning director, Ava DuVernay, put the pieces together with her short film โ€œAugust 28: A Day in the Life of a People,โ€ which debuted in 2016 at the opening of theย Smithsonianโ€™s National Museum of African-American History and Culture.

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