Recreating the spirit of the mass meetings that powered the historic Civil Rights Movement, March On! and Metropolitan AME Church convene an evening of reflection, vocal testimony, and collective action centered on immigration, the responsibilities of allyship, and the ongoing fight for freedom.
Grounded in the question of how we show up for immigrant communities with respect, humility, and courage, this gathering begins with voices from the pulpit and the movement in a featured conversation — moderated by Robert Raben — with Rev. William H. Lamar IV, pastor of Metropolitan AME; Mariann Budde, Bishop of Washington, D.C.; and public theologian, author and activist, Rev. Rahiel Tesfamariam on what meaningful allyship requires in this moment.
The panel will be followed by a powerful live musical experience with Maimouna Yousef, AKA Mumu Fresh and Civil Rights icon Rutha Mae Harris, including an audience sing inspired by the Freedom Songs that once unified and galvanized a movement.
Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde
Bishop of Washington
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Mariann Edgar Budde serves as bishop and spiritual leader of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, DC. Prior to her election in 2011, she served as a parish priest in Minneapolis for eighteen years.
Bishop Mariann earned both Master in Divinity and Doctor of Ministry degrees from Virginia Theological Seminary. She is a life-long student of history, and an advocate and organizer in support of justice concerns, including racial equity, gun violence prevention, immigration reform, the full inclusion of LGBTQ+ persons, and the care of creation.
She is the author of several books: Gathering Up the Fragments: Preaching as Spiritual Practice (2007), Receiving Jesus: The Way of Love (2019), How We Learn to Be Brave: Decisive Moments in Life and Faith, 2023, which was adapted for young readers as We Can Be Brave in 2025. Her picture book for small children, I Can Learn to be Brave, illustrated by Holly Hatam, was published in July 2026.
Rutha Mae Harris
Original Freedom Singer
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Miss Rutha Harris, a lifelong resident of Albany, Georgia was the 7th child born on November 27, 1940 to the late Reverend and Mrs. I. A. Harris, founder of the Mt. Calvary Missionary Baptist Church in Albany, GA. Her late mother was a retired school teacher. Miss Harris attended Albany's public schools, graduating from Monroe High School in 1958 and Albany State (College) now University in 1970, taking further studies at Valdosta State, Dillard University, and Florida A&M University. Miss Harris returned to Albany in 1961 and joined the Albany Movement and the Original Freedom Singers, traveling over 50,000+ miles singing for the cause of freedom and raising funds for The Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee. Along with Dr. King, she was jailed four times during the Albany, Georgia, Movement in 1961-62.
Miss Harris' professional career began in 1963 when the Freedom Singers were signed to a recording contract with Mercury Records. She has also recorded with the Landmark Gospel Singers, Georgia Mass Choir and Whitney Houston, and the Georgia Mass Choir. She has performed in 46 states, the Virgin Islands, Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, the Civic Opera House in Chicago, Illinois, The United Nations in New York, The Newport Jazz Festival in Rhode Island, The March on Washington in Washington, D.C., The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., and The Bahamas.
The highlight of Miss Harris' professional career was being selected to perform as a member of the Georgia Mass Choir in the movie, "The Preacher's Wife", starring Denzel Washington and Whitney Houston. In 1998 Miss Harris organized a group of singers, namely, The Albany Civil Rights Museum (now Institute) Freedom Singers. This group performs every second Saturday in each month and travels to any other city when asked.
Additionally, Miss Harris was the recipient of the Martin Luther King Dream Award in 2001, Coca-Cola Educator of the month on February, 2001, Outstanding Georgia Citizen by Secretary of State Cathy Cox, Woman of Achievement by Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, presented the Key to the City of Albany twice by ex-Mayor Tommy Coleman, and a former Teacher of the Year at Monroe Comprehensive High School. In 2004, Miss Harris recorded her first CD titled, "I'm On the Battlefield".
Also, in 2004, Miss Harris performed in Pittsburgh, PA 50th year celebration of Brown vs. Board of Education. On June 17-20, 2004, Miss Harris received an award given by the 40th Accord Anniversary commemorating the Civil Rights Demonstrations, Inc., for her Steadfastness in Preserving Black History. In 2006 Miss Harris received the I.B.P.O.E. Of West Georgia State Association Civil Liberties Department Award.
Rev. William H. Lamar IV
Pastor of Metropolitan AME Church
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William H. Lamar IV is pastor of Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, DC, where he has served since 2014. As pastor of Metropolitan, Rev. Lamar has extended the church’s historic legacy into the contemporary moment. Under his leadership, major philanthropic organizations have partnered with Metropolitan to amplify its consequential local, regional, national, and global impact.
Rev. Lamar is actively involved in community organizing and currently serves as the founding board chair of the Just Power Alliance; chair of the strategy team for the Washington Interfaith Network; and is on the board of the Texas Methodist Foundation. Rev. Lamar has preached, lectured, and facilitated peer learning groups for denominations, judicatories, universities, seminaries, colleges, and local churches. He is the former cohost of the Can These Bones podcast; and his book, Ancestors: The Names That Bless Us, Curse Us, and Hold Us, was published by Broadleaf Books in March 2026. He is married to Dr. Dana A. Williams, Dean of the Graduate School at Howard University.
Robert Raben
Moderator | March On! Founder
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Meet Robert Raben — a strategist’s strategist on a lifelong mission to inject humanity, common sense, equity, and justice into the fabric of American politics and culture.
Since its founding in 2002, Raben has grown to include a diverse team of 100+ experts, consultants, activists, and communicators working tirelessly to change the faces of power in public policy, media, education, business, philanthropy, the arts, and more. With decades of experience as an attorney, senior Hill staffer, and assistant attorney general, Robert easily navigates legal subtleties and powers through political realities.
Robert’s highly respected legislative career began on Representative Barney Frank’s staff, where he served as counsel to Frank (Democratic counsel for two Subcommittees of the House Judiciary Committee); first on the Constitution, then on the Courts and Intellectual Property.
In 1999, Robert’s reputation and effectiveness earned him an appointment to the Department of Justice as principal deputy assistant attorney general and, subsequently, assistant attorney general of the Office of Legislative Affairs.
After a unanimous confirmation vote by a Republican-controlled Senate, Robert was charged with overseeing Attorney General Janet Reno’s legislative initiatives and leading responses to extensive Congressional oversight of the department. Robert was the first openly gay man to receive Senate confirmation, and to lead in a law enforcement agency.
Beyond his work with the firm, Robert has served on the boards of game-changing entities, including The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, NRDC, the UnidosUS Action Fund, President Barack Obama’s My Brothers’ Keeper Alliance. the American Constitution Society, the Alliance for Justice, the Iraqi Refugee Assistance Project, the Mississippi Center for Justice, and more.
As a serial NGO entrepreneur, Robert has started initiatives impacting the leadership of our country, including Friends of the Museum of the American Latino, the March on Washington Film Festival, and Green 2.0. Robert hails from Miami and holds degrees from the Wharton School and the New York University Law School.
He is a Scorpio.
Rahiel Tesfamariam
Award-winning activist, public theologian, international speaker and author
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Rahiel Tesfamariam is an award-winning activist, public theologian, international speaker and author of Imagine Freedom:Transforming Pain into Political and Spiritual Power. A former Washington Post columnist, she is the founder of Urban Cusp, a cutting-edge online community highlighting faith, social change, culture, and global awareness. Amidst the Ferguson Uprising, Rahiel led #NotOneDime, a national economic boycott. For years, she worked in Africa, organizing with Pan-African movements across the continent.
Rahiel is a graduate of Stanford University and Yale Divinity School, where she was the inaugural William Sloane Coffin, Jr. Scholar for Peace and Justice. As a generational voice, she has been featured in the New York Times, Forbes, Ebony, Elle, and on BET and Revolt TV. Essence magazine named Rahiel one of the nation's "New Civil Rights Leaders."
She has become a powerful and brilliant voice of her generation who offers a bold path to liberation and healing for people of African descent struggling in the shadows of the American Dream.
Maimouna Youssef
("Mumu Fresh")
GRAMMY-nominated singer, MC, songwriter, activist
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Maimouna Youssef also known as Mumu Fresh is GRAMMY-Nominated, Indigenous Music award-winning, 3 X Washington Area Music award (WAMMIE) winning, Urban World Music Video award-winning, Musical and Cultural Ambassador for the US State Department, former elected governor of the DC chapter of The Recording Academy, co-creator of the Recording Academy’s “Best Song for Social Change” award, IMAN central roster artist and an Ambassador of The Black Music Collective.
Mumu Fresh has performed on two separate NPR Tiny Desk concerts which both surpassed 1 Million views each. She has toured internationally as a critically acclaimed singer, Emcee, songwriter, activist, workshop facilitator and now audio engineer who’s been called a “quadruple threat” by The Roots’ Black Thought, a musical “Quasar” by Indie rap legend TechN9ne, & “groundbreaking” by Oscar-winning artist, Common.
While touring 6 continents, Mumu Fresh has built a relationship with over 275K engaged fans who have shared and streamed her recorded music millions of times in at least 192 countries throughout the world to date. Mumu Fresh has shared the stage and or collaborated with the likes of Dave Chappelle, Amy Schumer, The Roots, Salaam Remi, D Smoke, Sting, Lalah Hathaway, Anderson Paak, Bruno Mars, Femi Kuti, Angelique Kidjoe, Nas, Jill Scott, Ed Sheeran, Common, Busta Rhymes, Method Man, Raphael Saadiq & Tobe Nwigwe just to name a few.
Her soul-stirring performances stole the show at the Black Girls Rock Awards 2019 and Black Music Honors 2019 and 2021. She’s rocked stages at acclaimed music festivals including the Forbes Blk Summit Essence Music Festival, Global Citizens, The Roost Picnic, Dubai’s Sole Fest DBX, Montreux Switzerland’s Jazz Festival, Mind Valley’s A-fest in Cartegena Columbia, The ESPYs and SXSW. Mumu Fresh’s music and philanthropic endeavours have been featured in publications and on platforms such as Variety, Ebony, Essence, BET, NPR, Al-Jazeera, Rolling Stone, AfroPunk, Sway in the Morning & more.
Among her most recent accomplishments is her contribution to creating and launching the Recording Academy’s historic trustee award entitled “Best Song For Social Change” which went live in 2023 at the 66th GRAMMY awards show and was presented by The First Lady, Jill Biden. The award was created by Mumu Fresh and her co-chair Wayna, assisted by NY chapter’s Carlos Chirinos, supported by the DC Chapter and ratified by the Recording Academy’s board of Trustees to bring awareness to social awareness justice themes that may have been under-represented or marginalized in the mainstream music scene in the past. It is their hope that this new award will foster a path to greater awareness, understanding, communication and empathetic action amongst communities worldwide.
Maimouna serves on the board of the copyright alliance and has advocated on artists’ rights in Congress. Maimouna has served as a mentor for several Grammy U affiliated young aspiring artists. In 2020, she founded her own online music education platform called “Muniversity Studies” to teach aspiring and reemerging artists how to reimagine the music business and thrive independently with purpose. In 2023 she partnered with The Duke Ellington School for The Arts’ Theater department as the Musical Director to compose and arrange the score for their rendition of George Orwell’s Animal Farm.
Most recently Maimouna has founded a non-profit organization with her mother, renowned sound healer, water pourer and culture keeper, Wapajea Walks on Water. The organization houses their family retreat center called Mountain Eagle Place, located in Freeman Virginia. Mountain Eagle Place is named after their matriarch Mountain Eagle Woman and is a haven for cultural preservation and restoration of indigenous practices and connectedness to the natural world.
Mumu Fresh is quickly becoming renowned as a sound healer and an independent music mogul for her generation. She is committed to ‘Art Activism’ and has performed and given lectures at dozens of Universities throughout the US and abroad as well as within the US prison system, The Congressional Black Caucus, I.M.A.N. Central in Chicago & Atlanta, The W. K. Kellogg Foundation, Ford Foundation, The Indigenous People’s Movement and more,. Mumu Fresh is a global citizen, musical healer, cultural philanthropist and community pillar.
Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church
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