This Saturday, Aug. 28, marks the 47th anniversary of the moment when 2,000 buses, 21 special trains, 10 chartered airliners and countless cars converged in Washington, D.C. to participate in the March for Jobs and Freedom. Organized by religious, civil rights and labor leaders, the 1963 March on Washington was one of the greatest moments in the history of American democracy. Citizens across the country who faced bigoted lynch mobs, dehumanizing poverty, and separate and unequal public services courageously stood together in the open expanse between the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument to challenge their government in the hope of creating equal access to good jobs, quality education, and the right to vote — three highways to the American dream.

The march was organized by civil rights visionary A. Philip Randolph, who served as president of both the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters and the Negro American Labor Council, as well as vice president of the American Federation League and Congress of Industrial Organizations. Two decades before the march, Randolph negotiated the desegregation of the armed forces and defense industry jobs, creating uncharted pathways for Black workers in factories and plants in cities throughout the nation, particularly here in Los Angeles.

We can only imagine what Randolph felt as he stood at the feet of the Lincoln Monument, gazing over the sea of 300,000 peaceful marchers who listened to the eloquent and profound dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other great leaders of the movement for social and economic justice. How powerful it must have been to see unshakable values of American freedom embodied by the voices of everyday people.

“We march today for jobs and freedom, but we have nothing to be proud of, for hundreds and thousands of our brothers are not here—for they have no money for their transportation, for they are receiving starvation wages…or no wages at all,” said John Lewis, a leader in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the youngest speaker at the march. He went on to say, “We come here today with a great sense of misgiving…We need a bill that will provide for the homeless and starving people of this nation. We need a bill that will ensure the equality of a maid who earns five dollars a week in the home of a family whose total income is $100,000 a year.”

The March on Washington was a radical show of power that set out to expand the role of government to address poverty and the disenfranchisement of millions of voters through the Civil Rights Act. The march called for an investment in programs for the poor and elderly, and demanded an equitable society.

The March for Jobs and Freedom and the values it stood for are as needed today as it was 47 years ago. Consider this: Only one in five Black working-age adults in Los Angeles has a quality job, meaning a job that pays family sustaining wages, provides affordable heath benefits for workers and their families, offers a pension, and has opportunity for advancement. The other four Black workers in this disturbing statistic are either unemployed or working in dead-end jobs that pay $12 an hour or less.

As news reports tout the uptick in stock exchanges, the Black community lives with Depression-era realities of fathers and mothers who decide between food and rent. Many families have run out of such options. I recently witnessed a group of proud Black construction workers explaining how some families no longer have the luxury of that option. One of the workers nearly broke down in tears as they explained how they went from job site to job site seeking work, only to be turned away from all 14 stops. They reported having to swallow the sadness and anger as they looked into the eyes of their children upon their return home. Meanwhile, in our nation’s capital, stimulus funding is stuck in the federal jobs bill, held up by conservative forces that would rather preserve tax cuts for the richest top percent of Americans — who have already seen an astronomical 513 percent increase in their annual income from 1973 to 2005 — than approve the much-needed bailout for working and middle-class citizens in cities like Los Angeles, where good jobs have furloughed or either disappeared all together from the city core.

In fact, as we write this editorial, a perverted plan is under way by Fox News host Glenn Beck to culminate his seven-region workshop on “community organizing tactics” for Tea Party and conservative voters to take place on the same anniversary day and location as the historic March on Washington. Beck plans to re-enact the March on Washington by espousing right-wing values that are as hollow and weak as an empty tea bag. What would Dr. King say about this immoral hijacking and cultural thievery by our misguided brothers and sisters who call for smaller, undependable government and who protest against healthcare reform policies that protect the elderly, youth and our most vulnerable? Under these insidious economic and social policies, the Black community will witness the first generation that is worse off than the one before it.

As Dr. King shared in his “I Have A Dream” speech on that fateful day in 1963, he offered this: “There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.”

Smallwood-Cuevas is project director of the Los Angeles Black Worker Center.