Others, however, face a future without permanent moms and dads. Last year, the graduation rate in the city's public school system had dropped to 50.5 percent. In 1998, three years after the Mall rocked with messages from men to do right by women and children, nearly three D.C. children in five are growing up in homes where the father is absent. Again, in 1998, AIDS cases increased among District kids 12 years old and under. Of course not.
Mammoth marches have their purpose and value.
The 1963 demonstration at the Lincoln Memorial laid down an important marker for civil rights. It drew together forces from various fronts under a broad banner of freedom. The event captured the nation and galvanized the civil rights coalition. But the walls of segregation didn't come down with that march. The months ahead brought church bombings, more boycotts and street demonstrations, and the drawing of battle lines in Washington before Congress finally passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and later the Voting Rights Act.