New York leaders honor MLK Jr. and pledge a more just city: ‘His name has transcended an identity’
Celebrating the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in emotional ceremonies Monday, 93 years after the birth of the slain civil rights hero, New York’s leaders committed to building a more just city, state and nation.
In the morning, at a downtown Brooklyn tribute, Mayor Adams outlined his vision for a more “King-like” city, focusing on the need to pause the gun violence and prison pipeline disproportionately plaguing Black New Yorkers.
In the evening, physical symbols of New York — from Manhattan’s Freedom Tower to Albany’s International Airport Gateway to Syracuse’s State Fairgrounds gate — were to be bathed in red, green and black light, the colors of the Pan-African flag.
King’s powerful voice for antiracism and nonviolence was muted on April 4, 1968, when an assassin’s bullet stole his life.
“His name has transcended an identity and has become a message,” Adams, the city’s second Black mayor, said in remarks delivered without notes at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s 36th annual tribute to King.
Adams, who visited a slave-trading post in Ghana before his inauguration, said his mayoralty will be a failure if he does not deliver a more equal New York City. His term was already affected by a devastating fire in the Bronx, which robbed the lives of at least 17 victims, mostly of West African descent.
“If I am just the second African American mayor of the City of New York, and I fail to stop the systemic problems that we have been facing, then I failed that journey I took in Ghana,” Adams said. “I failed those who laid the path for me to be here.”
He faces considerable challenges.
In still-segregated New York City, where yawning racial wealth gaps persist, Black New Yorkers have accounted for 28% of coronavirus deaths, according to state data, despite accounting for 22% of the population.
Gov. Hochul, decrying the 22-month-old pandemic’s outsized impact on Black New Yorkers, said the coronavirus crisis had “showed society’s cracks.”
“It held up a mirror to injustices that have been there so long,” Hochul said in her Martin Luther King Jr. Day remarks at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
The governor, who has declared that racism amounts to a “public health crisis,” signed legislation last month aimed at improving demographic data collection and generating health equity assessments for hospitals.
The city and state are reeling from the expiration of an expanded federal child tax credit and the end of the statewide eviction moratorium, which Hochul blamed on a dearth of federal pandemic funds. The deadlines could cut lifelines for low-income Black and brown New Yorkers.
“Today I think about all the areas we have to do so much more,” Hochul said, committing to focusing on education, health care and housing as she puts together the state’s budget. “Let’s head to the mountaintop together.”
The remark evoked King’s final sermon, known as his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” address, delivered one day before he died.
In the afternoon on Monday, the Rev. Al Sharpton pushed for Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to call U.S. lawmakers to a floor showdown on voting rights legislation.
Schumer punted on a Senate vote planned for Monday after two moderate Democrats, Sens. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, said they would not support an elimination of the filibuster necessary to overcome blanket Republican resistance to the legislation.
A vote is now expected Wednesday.
Republican lawmakers across the U.S. have moved to limit ballot box access after President Donald Trump falsely claimed the 2020 election was stolen from him.
The measures, which appear to disproportionately impact voters of color, have toughened ballot ID rules and allowed for the stripping of inconsistent voters from rolls.
Sharpton said he wants to see Washington legislators show where they stand on ballot access, even if that means sending Democrats into a failed showdown.
“You cannot honor Martin Luther King without the vote,” Sharpton said at his National Action Network’s headquarters in Harlem, as Schumer sat behind him. “I want the media to say that when Chuck Schumer goes back to Washington, that his constituents in New York told him they want the vote called.”
“He’s not being hard-headed,” Sharpton added. “He’s delivering a message.”
The civil rights activist led chants of “Call the vote!” in the room, which was crammed with more than 100 people for the holiday.
Lots of attention paid to @SenSchumer so far.@TheRevAl just led the crowd in a “call the vote!” chant, urging Schumer to call a Senate vote on the voting rights bill so the country can see “which side” all senators are on. pic.twitter.com/CjcRQMcmPE
— Chris Sommerfeldt (@C_Sommerfeldt) January 17, 2022
“I’m going down to Washington, and we are going to debate voting rights,” Schumer said. “The fight is not over.”
The senator recalled the rocky road King traveled as he fought for the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
“He never gave up. Never,” Schumer said. “We must never give up.”
But as the battle brewed in Washington, local leaders faced the challenges of racial inequality at home.
Jumaane Williams, the city’s public advocate, suggested Republicans are not the only politicians who have perpetuated inequalities.
He decried the lapse of the eviction moratorium in deep-blue New York, leveling a not-so-subtle attack on Hochul, whom he is challenging in the state’s Democratic primary this year.
”If we are going to celebrate Dr. King, let us take some risks,” Williams said.
Despite the flash of political tension, the National Action Network event saw moments of unity and celebration in a city that has seen a surge in Black power over the past year.
Adrienne Adams, who this month became the first Black woman to rise to City Council speaker, said Sharpton’s organization had helped put “people of color in places that we never dreamed that we’d see people of color.”
She hailed Mayor Adams’ arrival at City Hall and Alvin Bragg’s ascension to become the first Black Manhattan district attorney. Concluding her speech, she began to sing “I Want Jesus to Walk With Me,” an African American spiritual.
The electrified crowd sang along and cheered, offering a standing ovation as Sharpton beamed beside her on stage.
