SACRAMENTO —
On chilly, a drizzly morning, Azetec dancers wake up the streets of downtown Sacramento.
It’s a blessing — a send off for the participants of the 5th Annual Sacramento Poor People’s March.
“This is the bread, the butter and the soul of what Dr. King really stood for,” Kevin Carter, Leading Advocate, Poor People’s Campaign, said.
After his famous March on Washington, Dr. Mr. Luther King Jr. was planning for a “Poor People’s Campaign March” to Washington. But before he could carry this out, he was killed in 1968.
For the last 49 years, people across America have honored Dr. King, marching for economic justice.
“To reignite what he had started, because it’s unfinished business,” Carter said.
Carter, an Oak Park native, remembered the very moment he became a social justice advocate. He said it was July 4, 1968 — the year Dr. King was killed.
“While I was doing my fireworks, I was watching a riot take place. A mass uprising take place right before my eyes,” Carter said.
He was 8-years-old then, and he has not stopped fighting since.
Unions, veterans groups, homeless advocates, and many other coalitions joined the march. Each person may be marching for a different issue, but they all say they relate to the legacy that Dr. Martin Luther King left for them in the 1960s.
“I have a dream to be able to support myself and live in an apartment,” Rosalia Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez marched, in hopes of getting a $15/hr minimum wage to improve her quality of life. She was also marching for nursing home workers’ rights.
“We must stand up, speak up, and speak out and be a voice, and not an echo, and be a voice for one another, because we share the same need,” Carter said.
The need Dr. King said, for all people to have what they need, simply to live.
