For Immediate Release
Media Advisory
Date of Event: Monday January 16, 2017
Gathering: Rally begins at Noon at Central United Methodist Church 33
E. Adams at Woodward
March: The demonstration leaves the church at 1:30pm
Community Meal: Located at St. John’s Episcopal Church Woodward at
I-75 at 2:30pm
Cultural Program: Also at St. John’s Episcopal Church from 3:30-5:30pm
Contact: Detroit MLK Committee
5920 Second Ave.
Detroit, MI 48202
(313) 405-2185
URL: www.mlkdetroit.org
E-mail: panafnewswire@yahoo.com
Detroit MLK Day to Commemorate 50th Anniversary of Anti-War Movement
and Urban Rebellion
This year’s 14th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Rally & March
comes at a time of rising hatred, bigotry and military conflict both
inside the United States and around the world.
On Monday January 16, 2017, the Detroit MLK Day Rally & March will
commemorate the 50th anniversary of the historic Riverside Church
address in New York City entitled “Beyond Vietnam: Breaking the
Silence”, where Dr. King came out firmly against military intervention
in southeast Asia.
The speech was delivered on April 4, 1967, just one year prior to the
Civil Rights and peace activist’s assassination in Memphis, Tennessee.
Dr. King had been under pressure by the Student Nonviolent
Coordinating Committee (SNCC) which had taken a firm position against
the war in early January 1966. During 1967, Dr. King participated in
large antiwar demonstrations in Chicago, New York City and other
cities.
In addition, 2017 represents the 50th anniversary of the July 23-27
Detroit Rebellion. These days of civil unrest marked the largest of
such outbreaks in the history of the U.S. up until that time period.
Dr. King, who remained a proponent of nonviolent resistance to racism
and oppression until his death, did not condemn the rebellions which
struck over 160 cities during 1967. He stated that “riots were the
voices of the unheard.” He emphasized that the federal government
needed to heed the calls of African Americans and other oppressed
peoples for social justice in order to avoid a much more profound
social calamity. Today, some five decades later, the problems of
institutional racism, police brutality, poverty and the exorbitant
Pentagon budget remain impediments to the country becoming a genuinely
democratic society.
Speakers at the rally and march will represent the various movements
operating in Detroit related to water shut-offs, property tax
foreclosures, joblessness, poverty, and governmental indifference to
the suffering of the people. The message of Dr. King and the Civil
Rights Movement is still as relevant if not more so than it was in the
1960s.
This event is sponsored and endorsed by over 40 city and statewide
organizations including: The Moratorium NOW! Coalition, the Michigan
Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI), Detroit Active
Retired and Employees Association (DAREA), Autoworker Caravan, Prof.
Gloria Aneb House, Workers World Party, Green Party of Detroit and
Michigan, Linda Szysko, UAW Local 140 Civil Rights Committee, UAW
Local 160, A. Phillip Randolph Institute, Vanessa Fluker ACLU of
Michigan, and many others.
The community meal at St. John’s Episcopal Church beginning at 2:30 is
provided by the Wobbly Kitchen and Food Not Bombs. A cultural program
is being coordinated by Detroit Educator and Poet Aurora Harris. This
portion of the program will feature internationally recognized Detroit
spoken word artist and musician Jessica Care Moore along with a host
of other presenters.
For more information on this event please contact us as soon as possible.
In Solidarity,
Abayomi Azikiwe,
Detroit MLK Day Media Coordinator
(313) 671-3715
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Distributed By: THE PAN-AFRICAN RESEARCH AND DOCUMENTATION PROJECT–
E MAIL: panafnewswire@gmail.com
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Related Web Sites
http://panafricannews.blogspot.com
http://mecawi.org
http://moratorium-mi.org
http://www.world-newspapers.com/africa.html
http://www.freemumia.com
http://www.africa-union.org
http://www.cprmetro.org
http://www.herald.co.zw/
http://www.anc.org.za
http://www.caribbeannewspapers.com
http://www.presstv.ir
http://www.rt.com
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