4 hours Ago By Abayomi Azikiwe
A broad array of organizations and artists reaffirm their commitment to build unity in action for the coming period Political Review On Monday January 20, 2025, the Detroit MLK Committee held its 22nd Annual day of commemoration for the life, times and contributions of the martyred Civil Rights and Antiwar leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968).
The event was held in the sanctuary at St. Matthew’s-St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church located on Woodward Avenue and attracted a capacity audience which overflowed into another section of the building.
Since 2004, when the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI) called for a rally and march which drew directly upon the actual legacy of Dr. King and the social justice movements of the post-World War II era, every year on the federally designated holiday in honor of Dr. King, this event has been organized.
After the initial gathering in 2004, the Detroit MLK Committee was formed with veteran activist Dorothy Dewberry-Aldridge as the chairperson. This year the focus was on the need for unity in the face of a renewed reactionary wave of policy implementation by the administration of President Donald Trump and the United States Congress aimed at further reversing the gains made over the last sixty years. The overall theme of the event was entitled: “Six Decades of Mass Movements, The Struggle Continues.
” At the beginning of 1965, the situation could not be perceived as anything other than socially bleak. The passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 had been hailed as a monumental achievement by the southern-based movement. However, many of the mandates contained within the Civil Rights Act were ignored by the political officials and business owners.
In some areas of the South, the “white only” signs remained while African Americans were subjected to gross labor exploitation and repressive violence designed to maintain the status-quo. When Dr. King’s organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), intervened in the Selma campaign to win the right to vote during January 1965, the situation was very dangerous and fraught with enormous political and physical risks.
The local activists in Selma and Dallas County had been active for years seeking to win the right to the franchise. The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) had been active in Selma since 1962-63 working with youth and workers to improve the conditions of African Americans. The moving of several key SCLC organizers including its president, Dr.
King, into Selma drew national media attention to the situation. The murder of Jimmie Lee Jackson of Marion, Alabama, the arrest of Dr. King and others, fueled the mass sentiment to end the racist oppression in the area.
Later on March 7, known as “Bloody Sunday”, hundreds were prevented from marching to the state capitol of Montgomery and beaten viciously by dozens of state troopers and local police at the end of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. When Dr. King came to Selma the following day in preparation for another attempted walk to Montgomery, the March 9 action avoided a similar fate as occurred just two days earlier.
However, Rev. James Reeb, a Unitarian Universalist minister was beaten into a coma outside a local restaurant in Selma and died days afterward. By March 21, the federal courts had upheld the constitutional right of the movement to march from Selma to Montgomery prompting the federalization of the Alabama National Guard to provide security for the activists.
After reaching Montgomery on March 25 and the holding of a rally on the state capitol steps underneath the Confederate flag, a Detroit activist, Mrs. Viola Liuzzo was assassinated by the Ku Klux Klan as she transported marchers back to their homes. “We Have Some Difficult Days Ahead” Yvonne Jones of the Moratorium NOW! Coalition and the MLK Committee quoted these prophetic words by Dr.
King which were enunciated in his last address before thousands of people in Memphis on April 3, 1968. Jones performed libations at the beginning of the rally recounting the contributions of many in the protracted struggle for liberation. The rally was addressed by 23 speakers and artistic groups from various community organizations and collectives.
These speakers and cultural workers included: Aurora Harris, event co-chair and lecturer at the University of Michigan in Dearborn; a performance of the African American National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing”, by musicians Allen Denard, Zania Alake and Bill Meyer; the LaShell’s School of Dance—LSO Dance Company; Maryam Lowen, veteran Civil Rights activist in Mississippi; Jim Rine of the Veterans for Peace; Cecily McClellan of We the People of Detroit; Meg Brown, student Pride president at the U-M Dearborn; Wanda Olugbala, host of That Social Worker Lady podcast; Elena Herrada of Moratorium NOW! Coalition spoke on threat to immigrants in the U.S.; Nada of the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM); Atty.
Matt Clark of Michigan Divest; Wardell Montgomery, poet and songwriter; Russ Bellant, author of “Danger Ahead” on the looming threat of fascism in the U.S.; and Atty.
Nancy Parker, Executive Director of the Detroit Justice Center. LaShawn English, the Director of UAW Region 1, represented the labor union which engaged in the “Stand Up Strike” during the Fall of 2023. Other labor organizations supported the event including the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 58 and Lecturer’s Employee Organization (LEO) AFT 6244.
This year’s “MLK Spirit of Detroit Award” was given to the students who led the struggle for full disclosure and divestment of financial holding in the State of Israel at the three largest universities in the state of Michigan. Students from Wayne State University (WSU), the University of Michigan (U-M) in Ann Arbor and Michigan State University in East Lansing were in attendance to accept the awards. These campuses were the scene of encampments in solidarity with the Palestinians and their struggle against genocide in Gaza and other areas of the occupied territories.
Demonstrations were held on over 100 campuses across the U.S. during the Winter and Spring of 2024.
The students and faculty members involved in the demonstrations and encampments faced enormous repression engineered by the administration of former President Joe Biden. At WSU and U-M Ann Arbor, the encampments were violently broken up by campus and local police agencies. In Michigan, several activists are still facing criminal charges filed by Attorney General Dana Nessel.
A campaign is underway to have the AG drop the charges against the students. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) in response to the lawsuit filed by the Republic of South Africa in December 2023, ruled that the charges of genocide against the settler-colonial regime in Tel Aviv were plausible. Over the last 15 months, millions have demonstrated in the U.
S. and internationally calling for a ceasefire, an end to the genocide and the total liberation of Palestine and the rest of the West Asia region. One of the leaders from the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at WSU said that the “ceasefire was a direct result of the resistance carried out by the people in Gaza.
” A Broad Coalition to Fight for the Future MLK Day was co-sponsored and endorsed by over 60 organizations and individuals. These various entities included: the ACLU Of Michigan; Broadside Lotus Press; Buck Dinner Fund; Central United Methodist Church; Detroit Coalition for Police Transparency and Accountability; Detroit Justice Center; General Baker Institute; General Defense Committee; Gwendolyn Winston; Revs. Denise Griebler and Bill Wylie-Kellerman; Huntington Woods Peace Project; Jewish Voice for Peace; Jimmy and Grace Lee Boggs Foundation; Nelson and Yvonne Jones; the Pan-African News Wire; Communist Party, USA, MI District; Freedom Road Socialist Organization; Nakba Survivors Association; People’s Water Board Coalition; Linda Szyszko; the Ron Allen Project; UAW Local 160; United All Workers for Democracy; Moratorium NOW! Coalition; Viola Liuzzo Park Association; Wobbly Kitchen, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Detroit branch, Black Law Students Association of U-M Ann Arbor; Coalition Against Genocide; Communist Workers League; U.
S. Palestinian Community Network; Detroit Union Education League; Michigan Action on Cuba Committee; among others. In the program for the 22nd Annual MLK Day Rally & March it stated that: “Today in 2025, the words of Dr.
King echo with renewed urgency. Democracy faces unprecedented challenges as fundamental rights come under attack—from voting rights to civil liberties, from worker’s rights to climate justice. The fight for democracy requires all of us.
Every voice, every action matters.” This section continues encouraging people to remain informed and engaged, taking actions such as: “Following independent news sources. Attending rallies and marches against injustice.
Join with grassroots organizations fighting for change such as those listed in this program as sponsors and endorsers. Get active in your union, if one exists at your workplace, or help organize a union if your workplace does not have one. Support striking workers—do not cross picket lines.
Register to vote and exercise your rights. Materially support organizations fighting for liberation and Justice. As Civil Rights activist the late Joe Madison asked: ‘What are you going to do about it?”.
