A long-awaited demonstration against poverty aims directly at wealthy profiteers for a “March on Wall Street” slated for Aug. 28.
Organized by the National Action Network (NAN), a massive anniversary protest is expected to kick off at 10 a.m. from the African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan. It will then slowly trek through the Financial District, ending at the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street.
“It was on Aug. 28, 1963, that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led hundreds of thousands to the Lincoln Memorial and declared to the world, ‘I Have a Dream,'” organizers said in a press release. That march was about jobs, and freedom — not just voting rights, not just desegregation, but the right to live with dignity, to work with fairness, and to be treated with equality, the document continued.
Back then, Dr. King mobilized an enduring Poor People’s Campaign, which, according to NAN, remains unfinished because “his dream is still deferred.” This anniversary reminder demands jobs, wages, housing and healthcare.
It is not about symbolism… “it’s about the right of everyone to live with dignity.” “We will send a message so strong that it cannot be ignored … the dream is not deferred — it is a demand delivered,” NAN says.
Rev. Al Sharpton, the torchbearer for the activist organization added: “We don’t march for the sake of marching. We march because when the system refuses to move, the people must move the system.”
With regular protests against immigration initiatives, policies related to the Ukraine/Russia and Israel/Palestine conflicts, DEI reversals, random pardons, ICE raids, redistricting, and numerous Republican objectives, the national landscape has been fraught with dissent.
Moreover, the nation’s capital might be considered an armed camp due to the recent deployment of National Guard members and military personnel. A return to the District might have posed restrictions.
Sharpton planned the Wall Street protest long before the Donald Trump announced the DC takeover. For more than a year, he’s been relentlessly promoting awareness, and a general assembly. The activist/commentator has used his radio show, a national television broadcast and weekly rallies at his Harlem-based House of Justice to spread the notion.
Recently, he invited church congregations, civic groups, and the general public to meet at the march. Throughout his campaign, Sharpton has reiterated that the place and date of his anniversary march is not by coincidence. He said Dr. King left marching orders “before his life was cut short.”
“He said America could not spend billions fighting wars overseas and then claim it had nothing for the poor at home,” Sharpton said. Accordingly, he referenced the hypocrisy, saying: “Civil rights without economic rights was an empty promise.”
Wall Street keeps breaking records — records for profits, not for fairness. Inflationary costs of living, equity in employment are also the driving force of this year’s tribute to the Civil Rights leader who allegedly was assassinated because he dared to dream.
Pickup locations and bus details will be provided by calling 877-NAN-HOJI.
Garvey’s 138th birthday was heralded in Brooklyn
The 138th birthday anniversary of Jamaica’s first national hero, Marcus Mosiah Garvey Jr., did not go unnoticed. The martyr, Pan-African, father and grandfather was recalled by grateful citizens who annually celebrate his Aug. 17, 1877, entry to his birthplace.
Sadly, the African-centered nationalist died in London, England, at age 52 on June 10, 1940.
Three history makers gone too soon
The feisty, interfering little Black sister on television who portrayed Dee Dee Thomas on “What’s Happening” is gone. Danielle Spenser, who often upstaged her brother on the 1970s sitcom, died at age 60.
Musician Eddie Palmieri is receiving bouquets, accolades, and full fanfares throughout the Latin world. The first from the salsa genre to win a Grammy will receive a six-hour tribute on WBAI when “Latin Routes” host Felipe Luciano decides on the appropriate Sunday date. Palmieri succumbed at age 88.
Ironically, Lloyd Williams died during the initial days of the anniversary staging of his Harlem Week initiative. Coupled with that, the Jamaica-born president and CEO of the Greater Harlem Chamber of Commerce died on the 63rd anniversary of the island’s independence— Aug. 6 at age 80.
Catch You On The Inside!
