I Am 2018 march highlights ongoing struggle
Fifty years and a day after Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous "Mountaintop" speech, thousands of people marched Wednesday afternoon through Downtown Memphis, back to Mason Temple, to highlight the ongoing issues facing the black community.
The rallies before and after the march attracted celebrities like Bernie Sanders, who lost the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016; the Rev. Al Sharpton; and movie star Chris Tucker, among others in town for MLK50, the 50-year commemoration of King's assassination in Memphis on April 4, 1968.
A headcount from a helicopter estimated the crowd at 8,000-10,000 people, Memphis police spokesman Louis Brownlee said.
The march, bookended by rallies, started later than expected at 12:30 p.m. outside the Downtown office of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), the union representing Memphis Public Works employees.
The route paid homage to both King and the Memphis sanitation workers on strike in 1968.
"Dr. King was many things," Sanders said at the kick-off rally. "But most of all, he was of the understanding that we are all of a common human race"
During the march, the crowd chanted "This is what democracy looks like," sang "We shall overcome" and carried a banner proclaiming "The struggle continues." Among those on the front lines were Martin Luther King Jr. III and Church of God In Christ Bishop Charles E. Blake.
Their exuberance, challenged by the long march, picked up down this final stretch. Drummers tapped a spirited rhythm as placards bounced to the beat, "Unite Here!", "I AM A MAN," and "AFSCME," whose local chapter was forged in the 1968 strike.
Hawkers yelled from the sidewalk, selling Black Power calendars, MLK placards and all manner of souvenirs.
It was a festive mood with a sober message: The dream lives on.
Labor organizations came from cities as far away as Chicago and New Orleans.
"This is important because as labor unionists and as activists we have to remind the world that Dr. King gave his life while being here for the labor movement," said David Stephen, 32, of the Amalgamated Transit Union in Washington, DC.
"The labor movement was essential to realizing all the aspects of his dream. So it is only appropriate that labor unions take up that mantle and celebrate who Dr. King was, what he died for and continue to move forward."
The speakers addressed labor, business, entertainment, faith and social justice issues at the rallies as advocates waved signs, including the iconic "I Am A Man" signs.
When the Rev. Al Sharpton took the stage at about 1:50 p.m. after the march, he chanted "No justice!" as the crowd shouted back "No peace!"
Sharpton said one of the reasons for the march was the ongoing lack of economic equality in Memphis, which continues struggling with high poverty.
Reporters Katie Fretland, Linda Moore and Marc Perrusquia contributed to this story.
Actor Chris Tucker, of "Rush Hour" fame, was among the notables in the VIP section.
Tucker, 46, said he had been in Memphis since Monday and was a guest of Church of God in Christ Presiding Bishop Charles E. Blake Sr., of Los Angeles, who was one of Wednesday afternoon’s speakers.
Tucker said he grew up in the Church of God in Christ, a Pentecostal denomination. He said his visit to Memphis gave him a renewed appreciation for “what Dr. King and others sacrificed their lives for."
After the tolling of the bell, Memphis soul great Al Green — or the Rev. Al Green, to give him his gospel due — and Memphis saxophonist Kirk Whalum took to the stage in the museum courtyard to perform "Take My Hand, Precious Lord," the song King had requested just moments before his assassination. The irrepressible Green followed that sacred classic with a number not on the program: his 1972 hit "Love and Happiness."