BY WALTER ELLIOTT
PHOTOS BY MICHAEL WILLIAM BARBEE
NEWARK – Those who were looking for more than the commonplace events commemorating the annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday observance would have found record support and turnout here in downtown Newark. Jan. 18.
The People’s Organization for Progress held their annual Dr. King rally, march and reflection from Essex County’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Justice Building to the Broad and Market Street Four Corners and return – but with a noticeable difference – midday Saturday.
“Local Talk” counted 500 men, women and children stepping off from the county building’s Dr. King statue and fountain on King Boulevard and making the four or five block walk east on Market Street and back despite a chilly light rain.
Many of the marchers represented a record 308 groups and organizations who had pledged to POP President Lawrence “Larry” Hamm that they would support the 2025 Dr. King March of Resistance Coalition edition. It took Hamm 15 minutes to read through the complete roster, interrupted by cheers from the just-mentioned delegations.
The representation from three states this time was widely eclectic. One had labor unions like Retail Wholesale Department Store Local 108 UFCW AFL-CIO, the AFT Faculty Union and IUPAT District Council 21.
Several abortion access advocates with homemade signs were followed moments later by a delegation from Pax Christi USA National Catholic Peace Movement. The newly formed South Ward Environmental Action group was making its first King march. Those who marched with Palestinian flags – there was one carrying a Lebanese flag – several rows apart from Jews for Palestine.
Hamm, Local 108 President Charles N. Hall, Jr., NAACP-Newark Branch President and other march organizers had to pivot on the uncertainty over the advancing rain and snow.
The former Newark Public Schools Board of Education student representative looked at the light grey cloudy sky and postponed other speakers’ engagements to the post-march reception and conference at Essex County College’s Smith Hall. The Broad Street to the Peter Rodino Federal Building portion was cut.
The rain-snow front held off until 1 p.m. Jan. 19 for the first substantial snowfall here in two years – but that was not what drove the organizers and marchers.
This year’s motivation came on the Dr. King observed federal holiday and the re-inauguration of Donald J. Trump, previously the 45th President of the United States, as the 47th POTUS Jan. 20.
Trump’s wide-ranging commentary while candidate and President-Elect – including exaggerations, half-truths and lies – kept many people guessing on what issues he would tackle first. He would largely say what he meant and mean what he said in his Noon Monday address and in signing around 1,600 executive orders that night.
Guessing Trump’s game had left some people anxious and dreadful – but this holiday weekend was the time for Hamm and Company to engage and resist.
“We’re not here to celebrate Dr. King as a cardboard cutout but as the revolutionary, who had been arrested 39 times at protests,” said Hamm. “When he spoke out against the Vietnam War, it was on April 4, 1967 – one year before he was assassinated. He was assassinated because he was a threat to the system.”
Hamm, of Montclair, held up a copy of Dr. King’s “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community” noted that the reverend was struggling against three evils: racism, poverty and war.
“There are more people living in poverty in the U.S. than there were in 1968,” said Hamm. “Although the official unemployment rate is four percent, that represents more than six million people. There are actually more who, for various reasons, are not being counted.”
Hamm said that “just as Dr. King opposed the Vietnam War, today we should oppose Israel’s genocidal war against the Palestinians, demand an immediate ceasefire and stop military aid to Israel. The money being spent on wars in Gaza and Ukraine should be spent at home on jobs, housing, education, health care and other domestic needs.”
Israel and Hamas, that Saturday, were making final approvals on a phased-in ceasefire to take effect Sunday. Some 30 Israeli civilians and soldiers held hostage by Hamas are to be released over the next six weeks while Israel releases 100 Hamas soldiers from their custody.
Smith-Gregory mentioned conflicts in Sudan-South Sudan, the Congo and Haiti. There are an estimated 30 wars and civil wars going on around the world this year.
Hall, who was next to speak, said that the march is in remembrance of Dr. King and to answer, “Why do we march?”
“We want to send a signal that we’re united and we will not sit idly by and let our rights be eliminated,” said the Local 109 president. “Marching’s the first step; we then educate and urge community members to vote.”
Hall pivoted to what concerns him when looking at the U.S.
“What I see is a divided country,” he said. “I see hate and racism, a turning back of the clock, an undoing of progress. Let’s not forget Project 2025 – they didn’t throw the book away.”
Hall urged the preparing marchers to support each other and resist the people in power who intend to undo the progress Dr. King and others had fought for.
“I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Philip A. Randolph, the President of the Pullman union,” wound up Hall. “I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that Dr. King was in Memphis supporting sanitation workers. As a union person, I’m committed to working with other organizations that’re about lifting up working families: we must never turn our backs on those who have the least.”
Hall said that he brought his daughter, Alexandria, to march with him Saturday.
Hamm also said that the march is a beginning and not an end.
“We’re inviting you to a meeting at Bethany Baptist Church, 6 p.m. Jan. 27,” he said. “we’re going to build on this by creating an agenda for action for April 4 -the date when Dr. King was assassinated.”
