By Lawrence Hamm\People’s Organization For Progress
Photos: People’s Organization For Progress
The Martin Luther King March Of Resistance will take place on Saturday, January 18, 2025, 12:00 noon, starting at the Martin Luther King Statue, 495 Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd in Newark, New Jersey.
The march is sponsored by People’s Organization For Progress. It has been endorsed by 27 organizations so far.
They include: Local 108 Retail Wholesale Department Store Union UFCW AFL-CIO, Salvation and Social Justice, NAACP – New Jersey State Conference, NAACP New Brunswick Area Chapter, Showing Up for Racial Justice – New Jersey (SURJ-NJ), Newark Branch NAACP, Man Village Men’s Support Group, Latino Action Network, Bethany Baptist Church, Good Neighbor Baptist Church, Newark Interfaith Alliance, Make The Road New Jersey, International Black Women’s Congress, Justice For Bernard Placide Jr Foundation, National Action Network-Brick City Chapter, Unifying Mothers & Men Initiative, Martin Luther King Commemoration Committee of Elizabeth, New Jersey, 350 NJ-Rockland, Seton Hall University Martin Luther King Scholarship Association, Integrated Justice Alliance, Muslim League of Voters of New Jersey, African-American Commission of Camden, Returning Citizens Support Group, West Orange for Humanity, Bergen County Black Caucus, United Parks As One, Cease Fire Now NJ.
More organizations are expected to endorse the march during the weeks ahead.
“We are having this march not only to observe the birthday of Dr Martin Luther King Jr, but to demonstrate our determination to resist efforts of the incoming Trump administration to further erode the gains of the civil rights movement and social progress of the past century,” Lawrence Hamm, chairman, People’s Organization For Progress stated.
“The outcome of the presidential election was a disaster. As former president Donald Trump will once again attempt to implement policies that will negatively impact many people in this country,” Hamm said.
“However, as bad as this situation is we believe that if Dr King were alive today he would tell us to pull ourselves together, get organized and prepare to fight back against the coming attacks,” he said.
“In the spirit of Dr King we are marching to let the nation know from the start that all who love and uphold the ideals he stood for are not going to sit back and watch silently as Trump pursues his racist and fascist agenda to inflict pain and suffering on the vast majority of the people,” he said.
“This march is our way of saying that we are going fight back against Trump’s reactionary domestic and foreign policies every step of the way for the next four years,” Hamm said.
“However, we are not just marching against Trump’s policies. We are also marching to advance Dr King’s agenda for racial equality and economic justice, as well as current progressive policies to improve the quality of life in this country,” he said.
“We are marching for an end to racism, poverty, inequality, discrimination, racist violence, oppression, and militarism,” he said.
“We are marching for a living wage, Medicare For All, free college, abolition of student debt, affordable housing, immediate end to the Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, voting rights, civil rights, workers rights, women’s rights, anti-police brutality legislation, Reparations for African Americans, expansion of social security, and other progressive legislation,” he said.
Established in 1982, POP is a volunteer, grassroots, multi-issue organization. It has been working for racial, social, economic justice and peace since it was founded 42 years ago.
The group has held annual observances of Dr King’s birthday almost every year since it was organized and has held marches in his honor over the past 36 years. POP has sought the support and involvement of other groups in the marches. It decided to have the January 18th march at its meeting two weeks ago.
Martin Luther King was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. The campaign to establish a holiday in his honor began after his assassination on April 4, 1968.
Congressman John Conyers of Michigan introduced the bill to make his birthday a national holiday four days later. It was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1983 and was first observed on January 20, 1986. In 1994, Congress designated the third Monday in January for the observance of the holiday.
However, seventeen states had already recognized it as a state holiday prior to the federal observance in 1986. New Jersey established it as a state holiday in 1977.
Additional organizations and individuals are invited to endorse the event. Speakers at the rally will include representatives of the endorsing organizations, activists, labor organizers, religious leaders, and elected officials.
Participants will march from the King statue to the Peter Rodino Federal Building and back for the rally. The statue is in front of the Dr Martin Luther King Jr Justice Building near the corner of Springfield Avenue and Dr Martin Luther King Jr Blvd.
Organizations that wish to endorse the march and people who need more information can contact the People’s Organizations For Progress at (973)801-0001.
