This year, 5th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Poor People’s Campaign march and rally at the California State Capitol in remembrance Martin Luther King Jr.’s campaign for equal rights and justice 49 years ago, uniting all communities as one people to rise up together in solidarity against poverty, addressing many social justice issues such as demanding a decent living wage, accessible affordable housing, the harassment of homeless communities and police brutality, women’s rights issues and immigration injustice/rights issues will be take place this Saturday, January 16, 2016 in Sacramento, California.
The 5th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Poor People’s Campaign event will take place from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. with the march commencing at Crocker Park, located at 3rd and N Street near Downtown Sacramento where the march will cross past the U.S. Department of Immigration building to address the mass deportations under the Obama Administration and will end with a rally at the California State Capitolat 1315 10th Street, Sacramento, California 95814, featuring many speakers from various organizations and performers such as the Brown Berets de SacraAztlan, Justice Reform Coalition, Black Lives Matter, Labor Council for Latin American Advancement AFL-CIO, Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), Peace and Freedom Party, PSL, CAFFE, Answer Coalition, The Right to Rest Campaign, Occupy Sacramento, POOR Magazine and many more.
Historically, Dr. King Jr. called for an Occupation of 3,000 poor people from 10 different urban areas to unite and organize in Washington DC for Jobs, living wages and demolition of Slums to create sustainable jobs to build up those communities, utilizing various organizing tactics and strategies such as direct action and civil disobedience with the intent to continue putting pressure on the U.S. Government, while remaining diligently focused on building up poor communities. Dr. King Jr., a true visionary who had an ongoing plan for years had also called to action in an effort to gradually expand this campaign’s momentum to a global scale, while holding large corporations and Government accountable worldwide. Sadly, Dr. King Jr. was assassinated just before this action was to take place.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's vision for The Poor People's Campaign will be revisited this Saturday, January 16th in Sacramento as many communities and organizations come together on this day to focus on what the campaign would look like today, focusing on various social justice issues such as fighting for a living wage while building with other low wage workers like; fastfood workers, farm workers and those targeted by killer cops and racial profiling, native & immigrant communities, homeless communities and low income and working-class communities who are faced with daily economic challenges to continue the spirit of what this movement was to be.
As one of the organizers for The 5th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Poor People’s Campaign Steven Payan stated: “Five years ago, during the beginning of the Occupy Sacramento movement, we launched this event. We were thinking of doing something around the MLK event, however we wanted to use this as a platform to address all struggles. It was about the working class and the poor taking charge of the platform, addressing real issues that affect our communities. We are continuing Dr. King Jr.’s legacy in California and demanding wage increase such as $1.00 an hr. living wage increase by 2021. We are addressing several poor people’s issues such as homeless communities being harassed and criminalized for sleeping outside in public places, having their personal belongings stolen daily and being woken up every 2 hours, including addressing immigration issues and in support of the recent Driscoll’s produce corporation worker’s protest against worker’s abuse.
One of our main goals is to create a bigger network and unify everybody who are addressing poverty issues throughout the state. Right now, one out of three people who are homeless is under of the age of 18 years. In addition, the Martin Luther King Jr. Poor People’s Campaign will also be marching as a contingent in Sacramento at the MLK 365 parade on Monday, January 18th to occupy a huge space in an effort to remind people that the Dr. King Jr.’s ‘I Had A Dream’ speech was the vehicle to take us there to reach our goal in building a momentum of conscience to create change for better wages, affordable housing access. So, like any social justice movement, this begins with ‘you’ and how ‘we’ can gather our communities to work together for a better future for the next generations.”