MARCH AGAINST INJUSTICE, RACISM, AND DICTATORSHIP ON ANNIVERSARY OF KING ASSASSINATION

The march will take place on Friday, April 4, 2025, at 4:30 p.m., at the Lincoln Statue, 12 Springfield Avenue, Newark, New Jersey. The statue is located near the intersection of Springfield Avenue and West Market Street.

“We are having this march not only to commemorate the life of Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement but more importantly to relate their past struggles to our current fight for justice, equality, and peace,” Lawrence Hamm, Chairman of People’s Organization For Progress, stated. 

“Our march on Friday will not only focus on the ongoing struggles against racism, economic injustice, and war that have been going on since King was assassinated nearly sixty years ago, but will also focus on the attacks of the Trump administration on civil rights protections, social progress, and democracy,” Hamm said. 

“We urge people to join us to protest against the Trump and Musk regime budget cuts, firings, unjust policies, and tax cuts for billionaires,” he said. 

“We must resist the efforts of the Trump administration to impose its racist, white supremacist, fascist, sexist, anti-labor, and anti-democratic agenda on this country. Trump is trying to establish a dictatorship, and that is unacceptable,” Hamm said. 

Dr King was assassinated on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. He was shot after 6:00pm while standing on the balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel. King was pronounced dead at 7:05pm at St Joseph Hospital. 

He was in Memphis to lend his support to the city’s striking sanitation workers, who were trying to organize a union and negotiate for higher wages and safer working conditions. At the time of his death, he was also planning a Poor People’s March that was to take place in Washington, D.C. 

“We believe that King was assassinated because he was trying to build a movement to end poverty, racial and economic inequality, and the war in Vietnam,” Hamm said. 

“He was expanding the scope of his movement from civil rights to human rights. And he became increasingly critical of the capitalist economic system,” he said.

“Dr King called for a redistribution of power and wealth in this country and the transformation of our socioeconomic system. This is no secret. It’s in his speeches, writings, and books,” he said. 

“He was seen as a threat to the system by many of those in power. I believe that’s why they killed him,” he said. 

“Dr King is gone, but his struggle continues. The best way to honor him is for those of us who are here to continue his fight for justice,” Hamm said. 

Since its founding in 1982, the People’s Organization For Progress has celebrated King’s birthday and commemorated the anniversary of his assassination. 

For more information contact the People’s Organization For Progress (POP) at
973 801-0001.