(CNN) - Friday's march in Washington began with emphatic calls for police reform, justice reform and voter action, 57 years after the day Dr. Martin Luther's "I have a dream" speech. King Jr. echoed from the same spot on the National Mall.
Participants gathering at the Lincoln Memorial for the event, hosted by Reverend Al Sharpton and accompanied by King's son Martin Luther King III, are expected to include families of Black people killed or seriously injured in police encounters, including George Floyd and Jacob Blake.
We will seize the moment. We will work to heal ourselves and to justice… as if our lives depended on it, because it does, ”US Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Massachusetts, told the crowd Friday morning.
"Let me clarify: Black people's lives matter!" Pressley said.
“We want an America that tramples on division, intimidation, and threat. We want a White House that stands as a chief healer, that understands the pain of black mothers, ”Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, a Texas Democrat, told the crowd.
Friday's march, which will head to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in the afternoon, comes exactly 57 years since crowds packed the National Mall to demand civil rights and economic opportunity in 1963.
The event, dubbed the "Engagement March: Take the Knee from My Neck," ends a tumultuous week in which Blake was shot by Wisconsin police. And it comes after a summer that has witnessed a worldwide outcry over the killings of black Americans by law enforcement. Furthermore, it takes place in the midst of a pandemic that has disproportionately affected people of color.