WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of African-Americans crowded on the National Mall Saturday for the 20th anniversary of the Million Man March.

Waving flags, carrying signs and listening to speeches and songs, the crowd gathered at the U.S. Capitol and spread down the Mall under on a sunny and breezy fall day.

Souvenir vendors hawked t-shirts, signs, buttons and posters as people wove their way through security barricades surrounding the Capitol and other buildings on the mall.

Nate Smith of Oakland, California, attended the 1963 March on Washington and the 1995 Million Man March and said he was glad to be at Saturday's event.

The 70-year-old man said: "It's something that I need to do. It's like a pilgrimage for me, and something I think all black people need to do."