Biden, Harris to meet with King family on March on Washington anniversary

President Biden and Vice President Harris will meet with the family of the late Martin Luther King Jr. next week to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington.

Biden and Harris will meet with members of the King family Monday, a White House official said, exactly 60 years after then-President Kennedy and King met in the Oval Office on the morning of the march.

Biden and Harris will also meet with others involved in organizing the March on Washington, a White House official said. The president will host a reception Monday evening and deliver remarks for the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law.

Monday will mark 60 years since the March on Washington, when roughly 250,000 people gathered on the National Mall to push for civil rights and equality and King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech.

The 1963 march helped lead to a host of new laws, including the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The landmark legislation banned segregation in public places and prohibited discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. 

Biden and Harris have sought to make equity a key part of their agenda since taking office.

Biden has signed executive orders aiming at protecting voting rights and advancing racial justice. He also recently designated a national monument to honor Emmett Till, the Black 14-year-old who was killed in 1955 after he was accused of whistling at a white woman in Mississippi in what became a pivotal moment for the Civil Rights movement.