Remarks by Miles Rapoport on the conclusion of America’s Journey for Justice

Delivered at the Lincoln Memorial, 2 p.m.

Our short walk today across the Memorial Bridge, from the gravesites of thousands who made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of human freedom to this temple honoring the architect of emancipation, ends a long march from Selma to Washington.

But this is not the end of America’s Journey for Justice.

From Selma to Washington and indeed in every corner of our country, that journey must continue. This march has reminded the nation that we still have some distance to travel before we realize the dream that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke of from these steps a half-century ago.

Tomorrow, many of us here will carry that message directly to our representatives at the other end of the National Mall. Common Cause is a citizens’ lobby, with 400,000 members and supporters across the country who are committed to the fight for every American’s right to easy access to the ballot box and a full opportunity to make their voices heard in every election, not just once every four years.

We salute our friends at the NAACP for their leadership. On behalf of Common Cause and our partner organizations in the Democracy Initiative, we are proud to have marched with them and so many other Americans of goodwill over the past seven weeks. Some of the signs you see in the audience today are messages sent by Common Causers from across the country to support those who undertook this thousand-mile journey; they speak for an America that too many of us feel has been missing from our national dialogue, one that says that we’re all in this together.

Thank you.