Local Advocates March Against Trump For Martin Luther King Jr. Day

On Monday, as New Jerseyans celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day, local elected officials and civil rights advocates gathered in Newark to march against the Trump Administration’s ongoing attacks on civil, constitutional rights.

Sponsored by the People’s Organization for Progress (POP), this march has been endorsed by 300 organizations, including Black Lives Matter, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), New Jersey Peace Action, the Party for Socialism and Liberation, New Jersey Alliance for Immigrant Justice, and Garden State Equality.

King remains one of othe most prominent and influential leaders of the Civil Right movement, having helped achieve groundbreaking legislation for social and racial equality, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

However, at the march in Newark, POP chairperson Lawrence Hamm emphasized the grim challenges being faced throughout the U.S. nearly 60 years later. Hamm said, “We have a president and an administration which is made it its work and its purpose to overturn, to reverse, everything that the Civil Rights movement achieved.”

Since January 2025, the Trump Administration has sparked outrage from activists nationwide over sending federal agents into U.S. cities, conducting mass detainment and deportation of immigrants without due process. 

Charles Hall, the Newark-raised president of Local 108 retail workers’ union, denounced the Trump Adminstration’s attack on immigrant rights and communities as “stirring the pot of hate,” creating chaos and pitting people against each other.

The administration received similar criticism from Deborah Smith Gregory, president of the Newark NAACP, who refused to condone these civil rights violations.

“We have a blueprint of what to do and how to get it done,” said Gregory. “Power concedes only only when it’s addressed. And that’s what we’re doing right now. We are saying the power is with the people.”

Demonstrators in Newark criticized ICE’s acts of brutality, particularly the fatal shooting of Renee Good in Minneapolis in early January. They also demanded the closure of the Delaney Hall immigrant detention center in Newark, where Jean Wilson Brutus died in December 2025 shortly after being detained. Brutus is one of over 30 people who died in ICE custody in 2025. 

U.S. Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-10th), who has been indicted for actions outside Delaney Hall during an oversight visit in May, joined the crowd in Newark in denouncing these ICE-related deaths. Describing the agency’s operation as “ridiculous,” McIver stated that she has refused to fund ICE and demanded that it be defunded.

“We have to continue to stand up and be the resistance,” added McIver. “We cannot go into our corners and go to sleep…and they want you to do that because guess what they’re doing? They’re raising your health care. They’re taking away SNAP benefits. They’re raising the cost of everything… You can’t find affordable housing. There’s no economic equality. No economic freedom.”

Overall, local advocates stressed the imminent danger that American democracy has been put under. In their pursuit of social justice and civil rights, activists called for Gov. Phil Murphy to sign three immigrant protection bills, including the Immigrant Trust Directive, to defend residents in New Jersey from federal agents. 

New Jersey Senator Britnee N. Timberlake (D), who supported one of these bills, called for systemic change with the demonstrators Newark, stating the U.S. Constitution protects both documented and undocumented immigrants.

As local advocates marched through Newark, demanding justice and equality for U.S. residents, they displayed King’s lingering impact as a civil rights leader. Even though his progress and achievements have been threatened, these activists stated that they will continue to preserve them.

“We are going to fight for every inch of social justice and social progress that has been achieved,” Hamm declared. “We don’t care how many troops they put in our city. We don’t care how many ICE gestapo they put in our city. We don’t care how many repressive laws they put in our city. We are not afraid.”