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DETROIT MLK DAY

Women, Civil Rights and the struggle ahead

Published Jan 25, 2012 9:21 PM

For the ninth consecutive year, the Detroit Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Rally and March was held at the Central United Methodist Church. This historic church, where Dr. King often spoke, remains a supporter of contemporary social justice and peace activities through its leader, the Rev. Ed Rowe.

Since 2004, the Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI) has set out to reclaim the genuine legacy of this civil rights leader, assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968. What is deliberately overlooked every MLK Day holiday is the principled stand Dr. King took during 1967-68 against the United States war in Vietnam and the necessity he saw in linking the fight to end racism and war with the need to eliminate poverty.

This year’s focus was on the role of women in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Four women, all contributors and co-editors of “Hands on the Freedom Plow,” a first-person account on the role of women within the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), were the featured speakers. SNCC was considered the most militant organization of the period that grew out of the Southern struggle to end legalized segregation and disenfranchisement.

The panel included Prof. Gloria House, who worked in Lowndes County, Ala., in 1965-66 as the Black Power movement emerged; Dr. Gwen Patton, who participated in the Montgomery, Ala., civil rights struggles; Marilyn Lowen, who worked in Mississippi with local communities fighting racism and disempowerment; and Martha Prescod Norman Noonan, who participated in various organizing efforts in Mississippi.

In addition to the women from SNCC, Arlene Holt Baker, the highest ranking woman within the U.S. labor movement as executive vice-president of the AFL-CIO, addressed the crowd. Other rally speakers included Aurora Harris, a community activist, poet and board member of Broadside Press, and John Hardy, a former Freedom Rider and activist with SNCC during 1960-63.

Under the theme, “The Struggle Escalates for Jobs, Peace & Justice,” a march through downtown Detroit enjoyed significant participation from labor, including delegates to the national AFL-CIO annual MLK weekend conference in Detroit, who joined in as an act of solidarity and unity. The march also had the support of area students and a socialist contingent of youth chanting anti-capitalist slogans.

Each year, the planning committee presents an “MLK Spirit of Detroit” award to deserving activists and individuals. This year, the award went to the organizers and participants of Occupy Detroit.

Voting rights under attack

The rally and demonstration also challenged the threat of emergency state management over Detroit and other majority African-American cities in Michigan. A statement from the MLK Committee entitled, “Hard Fought Right to Vote Under Attack,” raised that “almost 47 years after the passage of the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965, voting rights are again under attack by racist political forces in the U.S.”

The statement noted, “The intent of the Voting Rights Act was to enforce the 14th and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution, which were passed after the Civil War and guaranteed the right to vote for African Americans and other minorities. In 1964, the 24th Amendment was passed, which prohibited the use of the poll tax, that is, a tax that must be paid in order to vote.

“The main task of the ‘emergency manager’ is to make sure that the banks and bondholders get paid, period. The EM has no accountability to the citizens of the city it manages, and citizens have no voice in the decisions made by the EM.”

Following the march, a community dinner, prepared by the Wobbly Kitchen, Food Not Bombs, the Avalon Bakery and Occupy Detroit, was served to hundreds of people at the Central Church. After dinner, Writer L. Bush, a local poet and Occupy Detroit activist, presented a cultural program that included Sista Otis, Jessica Care Moore, The DDJ Trio, Markita Moore and Tracey Morris. During the earlier rally and march, the Mosaic Youth Choir, the Deep River Choir and the Matrix Theater made important cultural contributions.

In addition to the Detroit MLK Committee, event co-sponsors and endorsers included Veterans for Peace, Chapter 74; Swords Into Plowshares; the Moratorium NOW! Coalition to Stop Foreclosures, Evictions and Utility Shut-offs; Advocates for Informed Nonviolent Social Change; the Detroit Green Party; the Jamaica Project; Broadside Press; the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization; the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights; and other ­local organizations.