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March honors Dr. King’s fight for jobs

Published Oct 19, 2011 10:15 PM

Thousands rallied and marched in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 15 to honor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. one day prior to the dedication of his memorial statue on the National Mall. His is the only monument to a nonpresident and is the first to be erected of an African American.

The marchers came in busloads from as far away as Washington state, Detroit, Atlanta, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The strong union representation included the Washington Teachers Union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Union, the Transport Workers union, the Communications Workers union, the United Auto Workers, the American Federation of Teachers and the Service Employees union.

Speaker after speaker raised the call for jobs, citing the high unemployment figures. A Latino hospital worker from SEIU 1199 in the Bronx invoked the names of Malcolm X, Troy Davis, Huey Newton, Angela Davis, Rosa Parks, Albizu Campos and Lolita Lebrón as he spoke from the stage of the ages-long struggle against oppression and injustice. Rally organizer the Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III addressed the gathering and then led all in a march to the King statue.