In Portland, a morning call to action for racial and economic justice will be followed by a nationwide minute of silence and an evening march
On April 4, 50 years ago, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated while standing on a balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn.
King had traveled to Memphis to stand with the local chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) after two African-American sanitation workers were crushed to death on the job. The union was striking in protest of sanitation workers’ unsafe working conditions, degrading treatment and poverty wages.
King believed that racial and economic justice were closely intertwined and that one could not exist without the other. The night before he was fatally shot, King delivered his famous “I’ve been to the Mountaintop” speech at a local church, where he called for boycotts of discriminatory companies and for his audience to march in solidarity with the sanitation workers.
“The question is not, ‘If I stop to help this man in need, what will happen to me?’” King said. “The question is, ‘If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?’ That’s the question.”
On the anniversary of his death, the AFSCME and Church of God in Christ are renewing King’s calls for racial and economic justice.
In Portland, these organizations have joined with Metro to host “I Am 2018.” This April 4 event is free to the public and will feature gospel singers, a unity invocation led by Portland NAACP President E.D. Mondaine, and presentations from local faith, youth, labor and public service perspectives.
“It’s framed around each speaker’s personal experience, the history of Dr. King and what he’s meant for them, and then what they see as a call to action for racial and economic justice,” said Elizabeth Goetzinger, event organizer, AFSCME 3580 president and Metro employee.
The event will run from 9 to 10:30 a.m. in the Portland Ballroom at the Oregon Convention Center, with doors opening at 8:30 a.m. and refreshments and breakfast pastries served. Space is limited. RSVP at oregonmetro.gov/iam2018.
Later in the day, at 4:01 p.m. Pacific time, the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis has asked for a nationwide minute of silence to honor King’s legacy. At 4:07 p.m., faith leaders across the country will toll their church and campus bells 39 times, once for each year that King was alive.
At 5 p.m. in Portland, Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon and First Congregational United Church of Christ Portland will lead a permitted march beginning at the Japanese American Historical Plaza in Tom McCall Waterfront Park at Davis Street, and ending with a rally at the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. statue on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Northeast Holladay Street.
Email Senior Staff Reporter Emily Green at emily@streetroots.org. Follow her on Twitter @greenwrites.
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