Three Causes to Make D.C. Their Stage

Antiwar demonstrators will take to the streets, breast cancer survivors and their supporters will run or walk on the Mall, and families and community leaders in Anacostia will march to call attention to young victims of violence in the District.

On Saturday, the three varied events are expected by organizers to draw thousands outside on what is shaping up to be an unusually busy late spring afternoon in the capital. D.C. police officials are not anticipating any problems keeping order -- the timing and locations give each gathering its own space.

Activists with International ANSWER, an antiwar, anti-racism coalition that has sponsored some of Washington's biggest demonstrations against the war in Iraq, plan to rally at the White House and then march to Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld's home in Northwest Washington.

Organizers said they expect a crowd "in the thousands" for the noon rally and 2 p.m. march. Bus and car caravans are being organized from 31 cities in the East, Midwest and elsewhere -- far fewer than for some of the group's previous antiwar marches in Washington.

Earlier Saturday, thousands are expected to flood the streets around the Mall to raise funds to help fight breast cancer. About 50,000 runners and walkers are anticipated for the 15th annual Komen National Race for the Cure.

The 5K race, sponsored by the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, will begin at 8 a.m. for runners at Ninth Street and Constitution Avenue NW and at 8:15 a.m. for walkers at 12th and Constitution. Participants will proceed in and around the Mall to the finish line near 15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. A post-race rally will be held at nearby Freedom Plaza.

Last year, the race raised more than $2.6 million for research, education, screening and treatment programs in the Washington area and across the country, foundation officials said.

"It's a community event," said Sloane Burke, a race organizer. "Breast cancer touches more than just the survivor. It touches family members, friends. . . . Research needs to be done until a cure is found."

Across the Anacostia River, marchers plan to address the plight of youth in the District. For 22 years, the Unifest gathering in Southeast has celebrated the Anacostia community's culture and spirit. But this year, the Rev. Willie F. Wilson, pastor of Union Temple Baptist Church, the sponsor of the event, and other Southeast ministers decided to change the tone of the festival in light of recent killings of city youth.

The number of homicide victims younger than 18 in the District has already surpassed last year's total of a dozen.

Wilson and the ministers decided that "this was no time to celebrate," said Vernon Hawkins, Union Temple administrator. Saturday's event from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., called Uni-Love, is to remember victims of violence, help raise money for 5,000 summer jobs for youth and urge the faith-based community to create programs for young people, Hawkins said.

The event will begin with the Chelsea Cromartie Walk of Remembrance, named for the 8-year-old killed by a stray bullet as she watched television in a Northeast Washington house May 3.

The walk, in honor of all young people killed in the District this year, will start at Ballou Senior High School on Fourth Street SE and end at W Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE. Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D), Wilson and other political and religious leaders have said they will join a crowd that Hawkins said could total as many as 100,000.

The antiwar organizers hope to capitalize on eroding public support for the U.S. occupation of Iraq amid continuing violence and the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.