NEW YORK (WABC) — Protesters marched on Monday not only to honor Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy, but to also call for an end to ICE enforcement in America.
And it wasn’t just those who took to the streets — officials from across the Tri-State also used the day to speak out and share a similar message.
This year, civil rights for all took a renewed sense of urgency.
“If you think you’re exempt from this authoritarian government, then you are a fool,” Attorney General Letitia James said.
From the Brooklyn Academy of Music to the National Action Network in Harlem, Dr. King was celebrated for his spirit and memorialized for his achievements.
“There’s never been a time more in my life that the dream of Dr. King is at risk than right now,” said Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network.
Joining Rev. Sharpton were Gov. Kathy Hochul, Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.
“Dr. King suggested to us, when he posed the question where do we go from here?, we want to move the country forward,” Jeffries said. “They’re trying to turn back the clock. We’re fighting to bring people together. The extremists are tearing us apart. But we believe in truth and reconciliation. They want to whitewash our history. Black history, civil rights history — Black history is American history. We will never let them erase it!”
Ninety-seven years after Dr. King’s birth, Monday’s speakers said the nation needs him more now than at any time since the 1960s.
It comes as angry demonstrators face off against federal agents in Minneapolis and amid rising tensions over America’s immigration policies and the Trump administration’s efforts to enforce them.
“They terrorize the very communities that they are supposed to protect, they enter into schools and homes and worksites and abduct neighbors whose only crime was just trying to live a decent life in the place that we call home,” said New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
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