The Initiative on Catholic Social Thought and Public Life at Georgetown University held a dialogue that brought together more than 1,500 people in-person and online to ask what more needs to be done to advance freedom, equality, and justice for all sixty years after the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
"The Catholic faith that I adhere to is a Catholic faith that honors and respects and places social justice, racial justice, and economic justice as a primary tenet of our faith. ...It is very critical...that all faiths of America meet this moment of racially motivated violence, the effort to undermine American democracy, that we face in this nation today. We have to meet this moment with will, with passion, and with truly a great and powerful commitment.”
—Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League and participant in the August 28 Public Dialogue on The Sixtieth Anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom: Keeping the Dream Alive.
Watch the recording of the dialogue here:
You can view resources from the participants on the Georegotwn website.
The participants were:
Sr. Anita Baird, DHM is the United States Provincial for the Religious Congregation of the Society of the Daughters of the Heart of Mary, the founding director of the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Office for Racial Justice, and a past president of the National Black Sisters' Conference.
Marc Morial (L’83) is the president and CEO of the National Urban League, one of the original sponsors of the March on Washington 60 years ago. He also served as mayor of New Orleans and president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Morial is a graduate of Jesuit High School in New Orleans, the University of Pennsylvania, and Georgetown Law.
Andrew Prevot is the new Amaturo Chair in Catholic Studies and professor of theology at Georgetown University. He is a former professor in the Theology Department at Boston College and is co-editor of Anti-Blackness and Christian Ethics (Orbis Books, 2017).
Lauren Reliford is the political director at Sojourners, a Christian organization committed to advocacy for socialjustice, where she works on developing and implementing Sojourners’ policy strategy, positioning, framing, messaging, and advocacy for Congress and the Administration. Lauren is a graduate of Boston College and has an MSW from Catholic University of America.