Marchers demand economic, social equality
MEMPHIS, Tenn.—Activists claiming an imbalance in economic and social equality prayed, rallied and marched in Memphis on Tuesday, the 49th anniversary of the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Hundreds of supporters of the Black Lives Matter and Fight for $15 movements demanded higher wages and equal rights as they walked more than a mile (1.6 kilometers), from Memphis City Hall to the National Civil Rights Museum.
The museum is at the site of the former Lorraine Motel. King was standing on the motel’s balcony when he was shot down by a sniper’s bullet on April 4, 1968. He was in the midst of his “Poor People’s Campaign” when he came to Memphis to support striking sanitation workers seeking better pay, safer working conditions and union rights.
Led by a 220-piece band from Talladega College in Alabama, marchers chanted “This is what democracy looks like” and held signs saying “I Am A Man.” Some wore T-shirts emblazoned with the words “Show Me $15. Real Change. No Pennies.”
The Fight for $15 group wants a higher hourly minimum wage for low-pay workers, including fast food employees and home and child care workers. The Black Lives Matter movement developed after the deaths of unarmed black men during confrontations with white police officers and has waged protests throughout the country.
Marchers also came from Arkansas and Missouri to join their Tennessee colleagues.
Police did not immediately have an estimate of the number of marchers who participated.
Renita Moore, a 54-year-old nursing assistant from St. Louis, said raising the minimum wage is important because her cost of living keeps going up.
“We’ve all come together as one,” Moore said. “It’s very important that we stick together, stand together and fight together.”
The march was one of many King-related events in Memphis.
Earlier Tuesday, more than 200 people gathered at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church to hear the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. William Barber talk.