Connecticut People Before Profits

King Inspires Social Justice Actions

Marches, festivals, rallies and public service events mark Martin Luther King, Jr's birthday. in Connecticut this year. King's leadership for social justice is a beacon in the prolonged economic crisis.

Many National Day of Service events across the state are geared to provide relief to unemployed and low wage workers including coat giveaways, food drives and help to homeless shelters.

In New Haven, the Shiloh Baptist Church was overflowing as the Love March honoring King's legacy continued for the 43rd year on his actual birthday, January 15.

High School in the Community's Social Justice Teach-In will include New Haven community organizations. The Connecticut People's World table at the Peabody Museum's King celebration will offer children the opportunity to draw posters on the Emancipation Proclamation anniversary theme "Because I am free I can...."

King's alliance with the labor movement has inspired 1199 strikers at four Health Bridge nursing homes in Connecticut to march with the NAACP in Stamford on Monday, January 21 at 10 am around the theme, "Power of the People - Working in the Community."

On Wednesday, January 23 at 4 pm an SOS Security Officers March will be held remembering that King was killed while fighting for the rights of Memphis sanitation workers in 1968. The march will start at 165 Capitol Avenue in Hartford to demand decent wages and benefits, job security, and respect.

A Presidential Inaugural Ball will be held at the Omni Hotel in New Haven on Monday evening to benefit New Haven Works, the jobs pipeline which was created last year by the newly elected Board of Aldermen, many of whom are union members.

Also on Monday, a rally for national immigration reform will be held outside the New Haven federal courthouse on Church Street at 4 pm.

Events also link King's legacy to the call to overturn the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision which allows unlimited money to flow into the political system. Common Cause and Connecticut Citizens Action Group will rally on Saturday, January 19, the 3rd anniversary of the decision, at 1 pm on the Green in New Haven to get money out of politics.