The Lynnwood City Council unanimously passed a proclamation Monday night declaring Aug. 28, 2013 as the 50th Anniversary on the March on Washington and encouraging citizens to join in the anniversary celebration.

A 50th Year Anniversary Celebration of the March on Washington will be held at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 28 at the Jackson Center on the Everett Community College campus. The event is sponsored by Snohomish County, Lynnwood’s Neighborhoods and Demographic Diversity Commission and several other community organizations.

The proclamation noted that 50 years ago, one of the largest and most memorable political demonstrations in the nation’s history took place on Aug. 28, 1963, called the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The march also was the 100th year commemoration of the Emancipation Proclamation, which marked the beginning of the end of slavery.

The March on Washington was the event where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his now famous I Have a Dream Speech. The march is often credited with the subsequent passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.