Fight for $15 and the Movement for Black Lives have joined forces for a nationwide protest on April 4 to fight racism, raise pay and resist the GOP crackdown on protest.
Two of the nation’s most powerful social movements, including thousands of workers, elected officials and national civil rights leaders, will take to the streets on the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in two dozen cities for the “Fight Racism, Raise Pay” protest.
From a Fight for $15 press release:
Thousands of underpaid workers, local racial justice activists, elected officials and clergy will hold rallies, marches, teach-ins, and other demonstrations to stress that the push for economic and racial justice remains as deeply linked today as when Dr. King was killed in 1968 supporting striking black sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn. The coast-to-coast protests will culminate in a march by thousands of workers, national civil rights leaders and politicians on the Lorraine Motel in downtown Memphis, where they’ll hold a memorial at the site of Dr. King’s assassination 49 years ago.
The “Fight Racism, Raise Pay” protests, planned for more than two-dozen cities from Atlanta to Milwaukee to Las Vegas, come as working Americans face an onslaught of attacks on their right to join together for higher pay and confront racist policies from the White House down to local police departments. Republican lawmakers in more than two-dozen states have introduced legislation aimed at cracking down on protesters like those in the Fight for $15 and the Movement for Black Lives.
The marchers in Memphis, Tenn., will be converging on the city just weeks after a local Fight for $15 worker organization filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the city, alleging that its Police Department has used widespread surveillance and intimidation to stifle worker protests.
The rallies in Minneapolis, Detroit and Durham will condemn anti-protest legislation that has been proposed by lawmakers in Minnesota, Michigan and North Carolina respectively.
“We’re joining together with the Movement for Black Lives because our two movements have a common bond in fighting the racism that keeps down people of color everywhere,” said Latierika Blair, 23, who works at McDonald’s in Memphis and is paid $7.35 an hour. “McDonald’s conspires with police to try to silence us when we speak out for higher pay. Corporations and politicians act to keep workers and black people from getting ahead in America. We should be investing in our people and communities. That’s why we have to protest, and that’s why we will keep speaking out together until we win.”
The marches and demonstrations on April 4 will conclude with a national moment of silence at 6:01 p.m., which is the exact time King was assassinated, and Americans across the country will reflect on his dream for racial and economic justice and how it connects to their own dreams and goals.
Read more on the Fight for $15 website.