an interview with The Associated Press<\/a>.<\/p>\nMaya Wiley, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, one of the nation\u2019s oldest and largest civil rights coalitions, said the Trump administration’s priorities make clear it is actively trying to erase the movement. <\/p>\n
\u201cFrom health care access and affordable housing to good paying jobs and union representation,” Wiley said, \u201cthings Dr. King made part of his clarion call for a beloved community are still at stake and is even more so because (the administration) has dismantled the very terms of government and the norms of our culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
In Washington Monday, hundreds of people marched along Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, braving cold weather to honor the civil rights leader. The parade began decades ago as part of the effort to establish a national holiday in King\u2019s honor. <\/p>\n
Sam Ford, a retired broadcaster and member of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade Committee, helped bring the parade back in 2012.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe got to continue to do this because not just of Dr. King, but of what he stood for,” Ford said. \u201cThe struggle continues.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parade participant Harold Hunter echoed that sentiment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just a white thing or Black thing. This is a people thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The conservative Heritage Foundation think tank encouraged the holiday\u2019s focus to stay solely on King himself. Brenda Hafera, a foundation research fellow, urged people to visit the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park in Atlanta or reread his \u201cI have a dream\u201d speech delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington nearly 63 years ago.<\/p>\n
Using the holiday as a platform to rally and speak about \u201canti-racism\u201d and \u201ccritical race theory\u201d actually rejects King\u2019s ambition for the country, Hafera argued.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think efforts should be conducted in the spirit of what Martin Luther King actually believed and what he preached. And his vision was a colorblind society, right,\u201d Hafera said. \u201cHe says very famously in his speech, don\u2019t judge by the color of your skin, but the content of your character.\u201d<\/p>\n
The NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil right organization which had a myriad MLK Day events planned for Monday, asserted that the heightened fears among communities of color and in immigrant communities mean King Day observances must take a different tone. People will have to put their safety first, even if their government isn’t, said Wisdom Cole, NAACP senior national director of advocacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs folks are using their constitutional right to protest and to speak out and stand up for what they believe in, we are being faced with violence. We are faced with increased police and state violence inflicted by the government,\u201d Cole said. <\/p>\n
The Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of organizations affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement, had planned its events under the banner \u201cReclaim MLK Day of Action.\u201d Organizers planned demonstrations in Atlanta; Chicago; and Oakland, California, among other cities, over the weekend and Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis year it is more important than ever to reclaim MLK\u2019s radical legacy, letting his wisdom and fierce commitment to freedom move us into the action necessary to take care of one another, fight back, and free ourselves from this fascist regime,\u201d Devonte Jackson, a national organizing director for the coalition, said in a statement.<\/p>\n
For the first time in its 60-year history, Indiana University in Indianapolis canceled its annual Martin Luther King dinner. Over the years, the event drew notable guest speakers including Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress, and activist Angela Davis. <\/p>\n
The reasoning was \u201cbudget constraints,\u201d according to a social media post by the school’s Black Student Union. However, the group said it was worried this was \u201cconnected to broader political pressures.\u201d A few students responded by organizing smaller community dinners or \u201ceat-ins\u201d to fill the void, WTHR-TV in Indianapolis reported. <\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Westbrook, Maine, canceled a MLK Day service due to \u201cunforeseen circumstances,\u201d according to the parish website. But a member of the church’s \u201csocial justice and peace committee\u201d told NewsCenterMaine.com that the pastor was concerned about people’s safety amid rumors of ICE agents being in the area.<\/p>\n
Overall, there have been few reports of King Day events being majorly scaled down or canceled altogether. <\/p>\n
In Memphis, Tennessee, the National Civil Rights Museum was going about its annual King Day celebration as normal. The museum is located on the site of the former Lorraine Motel, where King was shot on April 4, 1968. The museum offered free admission on the holiday, an annual tradition.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis milestone year is not only about looking back at what Dr. King stood for, but also recognizing the people who continue to make his ideals real today,\u201d museum President Russell Wigginton said.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Tang reported from Phoenix. Associated Press writers Matt Brown in Washington; Adrian Sanz in Memphis, Tennessee; Brian Witte in Annapolis, Maryland and Charlotte Kramon in Atlanta contributed to this report. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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