20th Annual Detroit MLK Day Rally & March

For Immediate Release

Public Notice and Media Advisory

Event: 20th Annual MLK Day Rally & March

Date & Time: Mon. Jan. 16, 2023

Location: Historic St. Matthew's-St. Joseph's Episcopal Church, 8850 Woodward Ave. between King and Holbrook

Sponsor: Detroit MLK Committee

Contact: Tel. (313)-671-3715 E-mail: (panafnewswire@yahoo.com)

20th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day March & Rally Will Honor Six Decades of Mass Movements in Detroit and Beyond

Schedule

Rally & Cultural Program: Noon-1:00pm

March: 1:30--2:00

Meal: 2:30-3:00

Under the theme: "Six Decades of Mass Movements, The Struggle Continues", the Detroit MLK Day Committee is calling for a citywide mobilization in honor of the 94th birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968).

This event will feature speakers and artists active in the movements for social justice, peace and self-determination. The keynote speaker and other presenters will be announced in the coming weeks.

Since 1986, the birthday of Dr. King has been celebrated as a federal holiday on the third Monday of January every year.

The Michigan Emergency Committee Against War & Injustice (MECAWI) initiated the annual MLK Day March & Rally in 2004 amid the escalation of the Iraq war. Since 2004, the event has expanded with the formation of the Detroit MLK Committee chaired by veteran civil and human rights organizer Ms. Dorothy Dewberry Aldridge.

This year's MLK Day will represent a return to a live rally, march, community meal and cultural program after two years of outstanding virtual events. We are asking all of those who plan to attend to wear masks, social distance and observe all other public health protocols.

2023 will represent the 60th anniversary of the tumultuous year of 1963. In that year, there were the mass campaigns including demonstrations in Birmingham, Alabama and other cities against racial segregation and for jobs and income. It was the same year when Medgar Evers, the iconic African American leader who served as a field secretary for the NAACP in Mississippi, was gunned in his driveway in Jackson.

Detroit was the center of the largest march for civil rights and social justice in the history of the United States. The hundreds of thousands who marched on June 23, 1963 down Woodward Avenue set the stage for the March on Washington two months later on Aug. 28.

Over the last six decades the struggles for quality housing, education, water rights, self-determination and political power continues. Many of the gains won through popular organizational efforts have been reversed as the people of Detroit face a constant threat to their very existence, well-being and social advancement.

We invite all progressive organizations and institutions to join with us in making this upcoming MLK Day the most historic of all. Our focus for 2023 will be:

-Winning full funding for the Right to Counsel Ordinance

-Ensuring that all Detroit residents have access to quality housing, water services,

good schools, environmentally sound communities and healthy food.

-Ending all forms of police brutality and misconduct

-Abolishing the Pentagon budget while demanding No More Funds to NATO and the end to the proxy war in Ukraine

-The complete elimination of poverty by guaranteeing a basic annual income for all people.

Anyone wishing to donate to this effort can send contributions to:

Detroit MLK Committee

5920 Second Avenue

Detroit, MI 48202

In Solidarity,

Abayomi Azikiwe, Media Outreach Coordinator