Occupy Wall Street Protesters Hold Candlelight Vigil For Martin Luther King Jr. In New York

As part of a coordinated. global series of vigils on Sunday, January 15th in honor of Martin Luther King Jr, hundreds of Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York marched by candlelight from the Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine to the nearby Riverside church in Harlem. In 1967, MLK delivered his famous "Beyond Vietnam" speech at the Riverside Church.

According to Gothamist, there were performances by "Patti Smith, Steve Earle, Stephan Said, Global Block, and St. Christopher's Gospel Choir, among others. Russell Simmons, civil rights attorney Norman Siegel, Dr. Benjamin Chavis, Jr. and Sumumba Sobukwe addressed the crowd."

Occupy the Hood representative Malik Rhasaan noted during his speech that "the Occupy movement was built on the back of" Dr. King.

Leading up to the event, protester Abigail Keegan explained OWS' relationship to King. "Poverty, an issue to which King showed increased focus in the years just before his death, finds its way into the darkest chapters in American History," she said in a statement. "Dr. King sought to shine a light of justice against those dark chapters of war, repression and racism, our candles symbolize that light."

More Occupy events honoring MLK are scheduled for Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and will help kick off 3 months of action from OCCUPY THE DREAM, a collection of black community church groups, which will ultimately culminate in a large rally in DC on April 12-15th:

 

 

Comments

[OWS NYCGAC]

06:35 PM on 01/22/2012

Milik Rhasaan comment ("the Occupy movement was built on the back of Dr. King"), may be his personal opinion but it does:

DOES NOT REPRESENT THE CONSENSUS OF THE OWS/99% MOVEMENT.

[itswhite]

02:02 PM on 01/22/2012

1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislatin­g the wealthy out of prosperity­.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.

[NotaLiborCon]

10:32 PM on 01/21/2012

Wow it's really getting harder, even on HP to find OWS related stories. All the people two months ago tryng to tell me OWS was here to stay... Even HP dropped your tagged... Lookd like the movement is about done.

[dbrett480]

08:59 PM on 01/19/2012

I think MLK would be proud that the cops who arrest the protesters are now African-American.

[joyluck43]

12:42 AM on 01/20/2012

an ironic truth, although that is not all that he fought and died for. but you are right because there are these folk and many others: condi rice, allan west, clarence thomas, tiger woods, herman cain, have to stop now becaue i am starting to feel ill....................

[Jeff Snakeskin]

09:59 PM on 01/18/2012

mlk vigil (audio not that good)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv2tnR3zzOY

and the mic check during the vigil
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAvpYsMXTfA

[vobox3343]

12:03 PM on 01/17/2012

Where is the Tea Party? Are they not for equal rights for all?

[pricespector]

09:38 PM on 01/17/2012

Of course they are for equal rights, but why would anyone want to hang with a hundred people who believe in equal wealth for all?

[jeb50]

10:25 PM on 01/17/2012

If your not in the 99% or the 1% that would be zero.

[Doc Wattson]

11:18 AM on 01/17/2012

Oh, so that is where OWS went. Hadn't seen them for a long time. They don't even have a section on HuffPo anymore.

[basta]

10:25 AM on 01/17/2012

“It is a tragic mix-up when the United States spends $500,000 for every enemy soldier killed, and only $53 annually on the victims of poverty.” Martin Luther King Jr., on the Vietnam War.
We currently spend 50 million dollars for each Taliban killed in Afghanistan.
http://www.thenewamerican.com/index.php/opinion/959-jack-kenny/5183-nato-spends-50-million-per-dead-taliban

[basta]

10:18 AM on 01/17/2012

“It is a product of an almost demonic delusion that we were not only called upon to set and keep the rest of the world straight, but that we had the material, intellectual and moral resources to do this. It is a product of grave miscalculation that because we were a world power, we had the power and could use it everywhere in the world. Out of this melancholy body of obsession and miscalculation have come those notions now so familiar that we, not the United Nations, are the peacekeeping instrument of the modern world.” Martin Luther King Jr.

[tominnyc]

08:37 AM on 01/17/2012

I wish I had known

[MW NY]

12:20 PM on 01/17/2012

Hi Tom,
If you are interested in participating in events such as this one, Occupy Wall Street has a website detailing upcoming events.

http://www.nycga.net/events/

Be well.

[PALEOLOGOS DRAGASH]

01:22 AM on 01/17/2012

Dr. King would have been overjoyed.

[vobox3343]

12:08 PM on 01/17/2012

You notice how Republican Conservative Christians like Beck, Palin, Limbaugh, to name a few, are always missing from these celebrations? A "true' Christian warrior and none singing his praises. Can't get anymore fake than that.

[PALEOLOGOS DRAGASH]

12:58 PM on 01/17/2012

Of course I noticed. These people never REALLY espoused or accepted the notion of universal equality MLK lived and died for. Deep down in their (miserable) souls, they cling on to the notion that they are in personal covenant with the higher being and that they are, therefore, a part of the divinely anointed elite, a God Squad created by God Almighty in order to lead the unwashed masses to the Kingdom Come. That most of them are functionally illiterate and dumb as hell speaks volumes of the power of their "conviction" and divine call.

[kenhamlett]

12:55 AM on 01/17/2012

This group's remembrance of Dr. King is entirely appropriate. In the last chapter of his life, with many of the civil rights battles won, Dr. King had turned his attention to the American worker and the problems they encountered in receiving fair wages, organizing or joining labor unions, and achieving safe work places. Even his stance against the Vietnam War was routed in his understanding that it was a war in which the rich were sending the sons (no daughters yet) of the poor to do the fighting -- so his opposition was partly moral and partly economic. If he was alive today, you can be sure that he would be speaking out about the growing chasm between tyhe rich and the rest of us, the corruption pervading our economic system, and the blatant purchase of our politicians across both parties by rich Americans and corporations. Dr. King never wavered in his battle for minorities and working men and women -- and neither should we.

[Richcrafter]

12:41 AM on 01/17/2012

Exploit the Dream. Again.

[PALEOLOGOS DRAGASH]

01:22 AM on 01/17/2012

Boooooo.

[Tommygun264]

01:50 AM on 01/17/2012

Thanks for demonstrating willful ignorance. Again.

"This is America’s opportunity to help bridge the gulf between the haves and the have-nots. The question is whether America will do it. There is nothing new about poverty. What is new is that we now have the techniques and the resources to get rid of poverty. The real question is whether we have the will." - Dr, Martin Luther King, Jr. 4 days before his assassination

Are you REALLY going to read this quote from Dr. King and claim that he would not have been supporting OWS today?  OWS is not exploiting the Dream, they are following the path shown by Dr. King.

[Item9]

11:26 PM on 01/16/2012

Solidarity.

[joyluck43]

10:20 PM on 01/16/2012

what can i do for OWS? after bloomberg had them thrown out of zuccotti park? where can i send money to help them? where can i send blankets, etc? someone, please let me know. thanks.

[Roelvdwegen]

02:43 AM on 01/17/2012

Just look up your local occupation and ask them :)

[joyluck43]

12:23 PM on 01/17/2012

i am in queens so that would make the zuccotti park OWS my local occupation [i guess].ead the the uft headquarters had been used to accept donations to OWS, so i will call them. thanx

[joyluck43]

12:26 PM on 01/17/2012

K

[tominnyc]

08:58 AM on 01/17/2012

Notably, I had been there at night up until the barricades were taken down and until then the private yellow vested security Gentleman requested that more than one blanket not be allowed in per person wearing it or otherwise.
I wonder if that new rule was suspended as Winter fares on especially as if your eyes are closed or lay down (of course) you are arrested poof!
Truth as per NYPD: It being a private park, the yellow vested security team can tell the NYPD a rule and impose it like 'you are not allowed to sit on cardboard or you will be arrested' and POOF! you are removed and/or jailed if you sit on the cardboard on a freezing day in Winter on the cold marble cubic seats in the park. What about a heated pillow? NO WAY!
Other than realtime Zuccotti action, there is nycga network and tens of other cities with occupies.
I HONOR
MLK 1.17.2012

[joyluck43]

12:25 PM on 01/17/2012

thanx for the reply. i am calling the UFT offices here in NYC for information as they had once acted as a sort of national headquarters for this org. thanks for y our reply which strengthens OWS everywhere.