National Action Network · Defend the Vote
August 28, 2026 · The Lincoln Memorial

We Came.We Marched.

Now We Keep Going.
The Livestream · Full Program from the Lincoln Memorial
Full Program · Recorded Live

Watch the Entire March

This is the complete livestream from Friday, August 28, 2026, recorded from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Every speaker, start to finish, exactly as it happened. If you could not be there, or if you were there and want to hear it again, this is the whole day.

Watch on YouTube → Streamed live on the National Action Network YouTube and Facebook channels
What Happened

The Mall Filled

They started arriving before the sun was fully up and they did not stop. By the time the program began, the ground between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument was not ground anymore. It was people, shoulder to shoulder, hats and umbrellas against the August heat, stretching back further than any one camera could hold.

They came under their own banners. Sororities and fraternities in their letters. Congregations behind their pastors. Union jackets, Good Trouble shirts, hand painted signs, and a whole lot of people who simply decided this was where they needed to be on August 28.

A dense crowd of marchers filling the National Mall on August 28, 2026.
The view from the front of the Mall.
Thousands of marchers stretching back across the National Mall toward the Washington Monument.
Stretching back toward the Monument.
Members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority in red gathered together at the march.
Under their own letters.

Sixty three years to the day after a quarter of a million people stood on that same ground, it happened again. Not as a reenactment. As a continuation.

90+Partner Organizations
63 YearsSince August 28, 1963
1 MovementThe Work Continues

You came. From every state, by bus and by train and on foot, you came and you stood on that ground.

Sixty three years to the day after a quarter of a million people filled the National Mall, you filled it again. You stood in the August heat at the feet of Lincoln, under your own banners, and you told this country the truth about itself one more time.

Thank you to every marcher, every chapter, every congregation, every union hall, every campus, every family who made the trip. Thank you to the marshals and volunteers who held the day together, to the drivers who filled the buses, and to the more than ninety partner organizations who answered the call.

What happened here does not end here. The work of defending the vote continues in every statehouse, every county board, every election office, and every neighborhood you went home to.

Thank you for empowering
the movement.

Friday, Aug 28
2026 · Lincoln Memorial
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Gathering Begins
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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Dr. King
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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
National Action Network
The Drum Major Institute
Convened by the National Action Network & the Drum Major Institute
August 28, 1963 · The Lincoln Memorial

In the Tradition of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Sixty three years later, we return to the same ground.

On this very date in 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood at the Lincoln Memorial before a quarter of a million people and delivered the address the nation would come to know as I Have a Dream. He called America to make good on its founding promise, and he set a generation marching toward justice.

We gather on August 28, 2026 in that same tradition. The same ground. The same conviction that ordinary people, moving together in peace, can bend this country toward its better self. The generation of 1963 won the Voting Rights Act. Our generation has come to defend it.

This march is convened by two organizations built to carry that work forward. The National Action Network, founded by Rev. Al Sharpton in 1991, is one of the nation's leading civil rights organizations. From its House of Justice in Harlem and through chapters across the country, NAN has spent decades on the front lines of the fight for voting rights, police accountability, criminal justice reform, and economic empowerment, organizing communities, standing with families, and pressing for change at every level of government.

The Drum Major Institute, led by Martin Luther King III and Andrea Waters King, continues Dr. King's mission of peace, justice, and equity, mobilizing a new generation to confront what Dr. King called the triple evils of poverty, racism, and violence. Together, these two organizations bring the movement from 1963 into 2026.

1963
The Dream
Declared
2026
The Vote
Defended
250K+
Stood Then
We March Now
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. marching arm in arm with fellow civil rights leaders
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. marches arm in arm with fellow civil rights leaders.
Conveners of the March

The Leaders Calling Us to Washington

Two generations of the movement, standing on the same ground their families helped make sacred, asking the nation to defend the vote.

Rev. Al Sharpton
Founder & President · National Action Network

Rev. Al Sharpton

Rev. Al Sharpton is the founder and president of the National Action Network, one of the nation's most influential civil rights organizations, which he established in 1991. A Baptist minister and lifelong organizer, he has spent decades on the front lines of the fight for justice, equality, and the protection of voting rights, leading from the House of Justice in Harlem and on the national stage.

Martin Luther King III
Global Human Rights Advocate · The Drum Major Institute

Martin Luther King III

Martin Luther King III is a global human rights advocate and the eldest son of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. With his wife, Andrea Waters King, he leads the Drum Major Institute, carrying his father's mission of peace, justice, and equity into a new generation. He returns to Washington to defend the very rights his parents marched to win.

August 28, 2026

The Day We Marched

What follows is a small part of what happened on the National Mall. The rest of it belongs to the people who were there.

Highlight Reel · 31 Seconds

Never Erased

A short reel cut from footage shot on the ground on March Day. For the full program from the Lincoln Memorial, watch the complete livestream above.

Before Sunrise

The Mall Was Quiet

Hours before the first marcher arrived, the ground was still. Crews set the stage in the dark. Chairs went out in rows across the grass. The Washington Monument stood where it stood in 1963, and the Reflecting Pool held the same water Dr. King looked out over when he told this country what it owed its own people.

Then the sun came up over the Mall, and they started coming.

The Washington Monument at dawn, seen down the Reflecting Pool from the Lincoln Memorial.
Dawn over the Reflecting Pool, hours before the gathering began.
Sunrise over the National Mall with chairs set in rows and event tents in place.
Chairs set in rows across the Mall as the sun came up.
They Came

From Every Corner of the Country

They came by bus and by train and on foot, the way their parents and grandparents came. They came under their own banners, in their own letters, wearing their own churches and unions and chapters across their chests. Delta red. Fraternity colors. Union jackets. Good Trouble shirts carrying John Lewis's words into a new generation.

Nobody had to be convinced to be there. They already knew what was at stake.

Marchers walking toward the Lincoln Memorial carrying an American flag.
Walking in with the flag.
Two attendees seated holding Black Lives Matter signs, with the Washington Monument behind them.
Signs held from the front row.
The Leadership

Two Generations, One Ground

Rev. Al Sharpton arrived to a Mall already full. Around him came the heads of the nation's civil rights organizations, elected officials, clergy, labor leaders, and organizers who had spent months getting people to Washington. Delegations found each other in the grass and posed together, the way people do when they know they are standing inside something that will be remembered.

Twenty six years ago, Mrs. Coretta Scott King stood on these steps and told Rev. Sharpton and Martin Luther King III to keep marching side by side. On August 28, they did.

Rev. Al Sharpton arriving at the March on Washington 2026.
Rev. Al Sharpton arriving.
Civil rights leaders and organizers gathered together for a group photograph on the National Mall.
Delegations gathering before the program.
A large group of partner organization leaders and staff posed together at the march.
The coalition, in one frame.
Organizers and leaders greeting one another in the crowd at the march.
Greetings in the crowd.
An attendee wearing a Good Trouble shirt honoring John Lewis, standing among organizers.
Good Trouble, carried forward.
Leaders embracing and greeting one another before the program begins.
Before the program began.
On the Ground

Organizers, Elders, and First Timers

Between the speeches there was the part no camera was pointed at. People finding each other after years apart. Elders being walked to their seats. Young organizers meeting the people whose names they had only read. Someone always handing someone else a bottle of water.

A march is built out of thousands of small acts like that, and it was built again on August 28.

Delegations of civil rights leaders and organizers gathered on the grass before the program.
Delegations finding each other.
Organizers and leaders talking together in the crowd at the march.
Conversations before the program.
Leaders greeting one another warmly among the crowd at the March on Washington 2026.
Reunions in the grass.
Clergy and organizers greeting one another at the march.
Faith leaders on the ground.
An attendee in a Good Trouble shirt honoring John Lewis among the crowd.
Words carried forward.

"The generation of 1963 won the Voting Rights Act. Our generation has come to defend it."March on Washington 2026 · Defend the Vote

★  Confirmed Speaker

Governor Abigail D. Spanberger

The Governor of Virginia joins the program at the Lincoln Memorial on Friday, August 28.

The Honorable Abigail D. SpanbergerGovernor of Virginia
8:00 AMGathering Begins
9:00 AMProgram Begins
March on Washington 2026 confirmed speaker: The Honorable Abigail D. Spanberger, Governor of Virginia. Friday, August 28, 2026. Gathering begins 8:00 AM, program begins 9:00 AM.
March on Washington 2026 featuring civil rights leaders: Melanie L. Campbell, President and CEO of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation and Convener of the Black Women's Roundtable; Derrick Johnson, President and CEO of the NAACP; Rev. Shavon Arline-Bradley, President and CEO of the National Council of Negro Women; Marc H. Morial, President and CEO of the National Urban League; and Janai S. Nelson, President and Director-Counsel of the Legal Defense Fund.
★  Civil Rights Leaders

The Movement's Standard Bearers

The heads of the nation's leading civil rights organizations take the steps of the Lincoln Memorial together.

Melanie L. CampbellPresident & CEO, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation · Convener, Black Women's Roundtable
Derrick JohnsonPresident & CEO, NAACP
Rev. Shavon Arline-BradleyPresident & CEO, National Council of Negro Women
Marc H. MorialPresident & CEO, National Urban League
Janai S. NelsonPresident & Director-Counsel, Legal Defense Fund
★  Confirmed Speakers

Sanders & Ocasio-Cortez

National voices join the program at the Lincoln Memorial on Friday, August 28.

The Honorable Bernie SandersU.S. Senator, Vermont
The Honorable Alexandria Ocasio-CortezU.S. Representative, NY 14

More to be announced

March on Washington 2026 confirmed speakers: The Honorable Bernie Sanders, U.S. Senator from Vermont, and The Honorable Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, U.S. Representative for New York's 14th district. Friday, August 28, 2026. Gathering begins 8:00 AM, program begins 9:00 AM.
Mrs. Coretta Scott King speaks at the 2000 March on Washington
Watch: Mrs. Coretta Scott King · March on Washington 2000
The Charge · August 2000

She Gave Them the Assignment

In 2000, at the Redeem the Dream march on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Mrs. Coretta Scott King stood before the nation and brought Rev. Al Sharpton together with her son Martin Luther King III, charging them to keep marching side by side and carry the torch of justice forward.

"We're fulfilling the assignment Mrs. King gave us."Rev. Al Sharpton

Twenty six years later, that promise is what brings them back to Washington together. The march on August 28 is that same assignment, still being answered.

Watch Mrs. King's words →
A Message From Rev. Al Sharpton

Sixty three years ago, a quarter of a million people stood on this ground and refused to be silent. On August 28, 2026, we return.

Friend,

History does not happen to us. It happens through us. The men and women who marched in 1963 were not waiting for a better moment. They made the moment. They walked into the heart of the nation and told the truth about freedom, about justice, and about the promise this country still owes its people.

We stand on the same ground because the work is not finished. The right to vote, the very foundation of our power, is being chipped away in statehouse after statehouse. When the vote is weakened, every other right grows fragile with it. That is why we march. That is what we mean when we say Defend the Vote.

I am asking you to be a part of history. Not a witness to it. A part of it. Bring your family. Bring your church. Bring your block, your union, your chapter, your city. On August 28, Washington heard one voice that could not be ignored.

The dream was never a memory to admire. It was an assignment to complete. Come and complete it with us.

No justice, no peace.

Rev. Al Sharpton
Founder & President · National Action Network
The Movement in Motion

Sixty Three Years of Marching

From the first march in 1963 to the anniversaries that followed, the people have returned to this ground again and again. On August 28, 2026, we add our footsteps to theirs.

A quarter million gather along the Reflecting Pool at the March on Washington, August 28, 1963
1963
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August 28, 1963
A quarter million fill the Mall along the Reflecting Pool
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Mrs. Coretta Scott King at the 2000 March on Washington
2000
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August 2000
Mrs. Coretta Scott King charges the next generation
See the charge →
The 2020 Commitment March: Get Your Knee Off Our Necks, view from the Lincoln Memorial toward the Washington Monument
2020
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August 28, 2020
The Commitment March: Get Your Knee Off Our Necks
Watch on YouTube →
Why We Mobilize

The Purpose of This Mobilization

We are returning to Washington because of the immediate rollbacks across the country. This gathering is our collective response to:

Defending the Vote

Organizing for true civic equity, ensuring equal ballot access, and expanding community-led voter education across every generation.

Protecting Equal Opportunity

Constructing a future where fair wages, equal opportunity, and sustainable livelihoods are recognized as foundational civil rights.

Demanding Economic Dignity

Ensuring every community has direct, unimpeded access to life's essentials: safe housing, reliable healthcare, and nourishing food.

Why We March

We Carry The Unfinished Work Forward

The March on Washington was never a single day. It was a beginning. In 2026 we answer the same call our elders answered, with the same demand for a nation that keeps its promises.

01

Honor the Legacy

We return to the ground where a quarter million Americans once stood for jobs and freedom, and we carry their unfinished work into a new generation.

02

Defend the Vote

The right to vote is the source of all our power. As it is challenged across the country, we march to protect it for every citizen, in every community.

03

Protect the Dream

The dream of full and equal citizenship is not yet won. We march so the children who come after us inherit it whole, not weakened or deferred.

04

Stand Together

Across faith, race, and region, we move as one body and one demand. When we stand together, no statehouse and no silence can outlast us.

Where We Gather

The Lincoln Memorial

We assemble at the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the same steps where Dr. King spoke in 1963. Gathering begins at 8:00 AM and the program begins at 9:00 AM. The march route will follow.

The Lincoln Memorial seen across the Reflecting Pool, Washington, D.C.
The Lincoln Memorial · Washington, D.C.
2 Lincoln Memorial Circle NW, Washington, DC 20037 Get Directions →
Stay With Us

The Work Continues

One list. We will send you what comes next: the full program video, photos from the day, and the next national action from the National Action Network and the Drum Major Institute.