Newark: Historic Martin Luther King Convention for Justice and Resistance

Newark, New Jersey

Over 250 people, representing over 250 New Jersey endorsing community groups, attended the historic Martin Luther King Convention for Justice and Resistance on April 26. Participants included members of Black churches, the Palestinian, Latine and Nigerian communities and labor unions, as well as veterans, tenants and environmentalists — just to mention a few.

The People’s Organization for Progress (POP) organized the Convention, held on the campus of Essex County College (ECC) in Newark, New Jersey. It was chaired by POP Chair Lawrence Hamm. Professor Akil Kokayi Khalfani, Director of the Africana Institute, welcomed everyone to ECC.

Attendees voted on resolutions prepared by working committees that had met weekly for months: Social Justice, Labor and Economic Justice, Foreign Affairs, Immigration, Environment, Health care and Disability Rights, Education, Housing, and Veterans.

Topics of the resolutions included reparations; nursing homes and health care workers; doubling the minimum wage; the constitutional right to protest; union organizing; anti-imperialism; solidarity with Palestine / Yemen / Syria / Lebanon / Cuba / Venezuela; breaking the ties between New Jersey and Israel; solidarity with Africa; and support for single-payer health care.

The resolutions will be readied for both print and online circulation to the people of New Jersey. NAACP Newark President Deborah Smith Gregory described them as “a current blueprint of common issues, goals and solutions for community building.” (patch.com, April 21, 2025)

The all-day meeting was one of unity between mainstream organizations and revolutionary organizations. The fact that there were no disagreements or so-called “floor fights” is an important indication that struggle in the U.S. is prepared to move forward.