MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT) -- A representative of the state chapter of the NAACP says Tennessee was well represented at this past weekend's celebration marking the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Freedom and Jobs.
It was during the 1963 march that the Rev. Martin Luther King delivered his famed “I Have a Dream” speech.
Monroe Woods, West Tennessee Director for the NAACP, traveled to the event with a busload of 60 people from Hardeman County. He says busloads also traveled to Washington from Middle and East Tennessee.
Woods says he was encouraged to see a lot of young people turn out for the event, and was surprised by the crowd’s diversity.
“Just kind of reminded me that the cause is much broader than any one group - any one race or ethnic group - but it’s really an American cause.”
Woods says that issues foremost on the minds of Tennesseans as they traveled to the march included concerns abotu voting rights, equal justice, education and access to health care.