DETROIT—“I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead,” Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said in his final speech before he was assassinated. The words of King ring true today, 56 years later, with a sense of deep urgency.
The ultra-right is preparing to take over all three branches of government with a second Trump presidency, and with that, basic democratic rights such as the right to vote and the right to organize, are under threat. Project 2025 looms over the U.S. working class and its allies, and plans for the “largest deportation operation in history” creates a sense of deep fear in immigrant communities.
Under these uncertain conditions, besides an acute awareness of the struggles that lie ahead, the 22nd annual Detroit MLK Day celebration was held in defiance and a commitment to King’s vision for collective freedom.
That the Trump inauguration was held on Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, a day that celebrates the vision and legacy of the great revolutionary and Civil Rights leader, was not lost on those who gathered here in Detroit at St. Matthew’s and St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church.
“There’s another event happening in D.C. today,” Abayomi Azikiwe of the Detroit MLK Day Committee said. “But here today, we pledge to keep fighting for justice no matter who sits in that White House.”
Cecily McClellan, speaking on behalf of We The People of Detroit, declared: “It is up to us freedom fighters to figure out who we are, what we are about, and what we’re gonna do.”
A Detroit tradition
The event, full of song and dance, political speeches, and calls for unity of action, brought together hundreds of community leaders, trade unionists, peace activists, faith leaders, and freedom fighters. This year’s event was the 22nd annual rally and march held in honor of King as well as decades of progressive activism in Detroit. A march was planned to follow the main program but had to be cancelled at the last minute due to below-freezing weather conditions.
Following in the footsteps of King’s legacy, the event’s program linked the fights against racism, oppression, poverty, and militarism together and wove them into a tapestry of collective struggle. The necessity of unity to resist divide-and-conquer tactics were repeatedly emphasized and highlighted.
Sponsors included the Moratorium NOW Coalition, ACLU of Michigan, Detroit Justice Center, IBEW Local 58, AFT Local 6244, UAW Local 160, General Baker Institute, Unite All Workers for Democracy (UAWD), Detroiters for Tax Justice, Michigan Welfare Rights Org., We the People of Detroit, and the Communist Party USA’s Michigan District, and many more.
Several elected officials were present and acknowledged during the program, such as Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the newly elected State Rep. Tonya Meyers Phillips, Detroit City Councilmember Angela Whitfield Calloway, and Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson.
Detroit is a special place with regard to the struggles against racism, exploitation, and oppression. It was here that the Ford Hunger March took place in 1932—where thousands of unemployed workers gathered to demand jobs, healthcare, and an end to racial discrimination. It was also here where King led a demonstration downtown in 1963—the historic “Walk for Freedom”—bringing together over 100,000 demonstrators to speak out against segregation, unemployment, and housing discrimination.
“The fight for democracy requires all of us. Every voice and every action matters,” the Detroit MLK Day Committee said in its program.
For equality and democracy
Wanda Olugbala, an activist and social worker in Detroit, asked attendees from “generation to generation” to stand up and be honored—from the 1960s during King’s time to the 2020s. She reminded everyone that the struggle for equality and justice is a generational fight.
“We have to maintain hope…we have fought, and we have made differences,” she said. “We are not new to this. We are true to this.”
Russ Bellant, an activist from Detroiters for Tax Justice, spoke on how King did not work on issues separated and isolated from each other. He fought against the unnecessary killings in Vietnam just as he fought against the racist police murders and deaths due to poverty here in the U.S.
“We have to break out of our silos and our single issues,” he said. “Trump represents a fascist danger…and we have a duty to fight fascism.
“They want to create an insurgency to replace constitutional democracy with theocratic law. They call those of us who advocate for equality ‘unhumans’ and the ‘enemies within’…and they are embracing mass murderers,” he said.
Frank Hammer, former president of UAW Local 909, told People’s World that the labor movement and the entire AFL-CIO must stand up for equality and defend the democratic rights of all working people in the coming period.
“The AFL-CIO and the entire labor movement must immediately take up defense of immigrants against Trump’s promised attacks against their 14th Amendment rights, and his planned indiscriminate mass deportations,” he said.
Detroit says NO to deportations
LaShawn English, Director of UAW Region 1, declared the necessity of uniting all working people to defend against the threat of deportations for immigrant workers. Trump wants to “demonize communities” and declare immigrants “outsiders,” she said. “They are not outsiders; they are our neighbors, our coworkers, and our friends. We must fight to ensure their rights are protected.
“MLK said workers’ justice is human justice,” she said. “We at the UAW say ‘Keep the Promise,’ and we mean it. We fight to hold those in power accountable.”
“We know how to resist,” said Elena Herrada, grassroots organizer with the Moratorium NOW Coalition. She spoke of how her family members were deported from Detroit back to Mexico during the Great Depression. “Repatriated, they called it…We called it de-patriated. A lot of them were U.S. citizens.
“We know the history” with Trump’s proposed massive deportation plans for immigrant and undocumented workers, a hallmark of his re-election campaign, Herrada said. “Citizenship did not protect them…but guess what? We came back. We’re still here.”
People’s World spoke with young immigrant rights activists based out of Southwest Detroit, which is home to a large population of Latinos. The event Monday was their first MLK event, and they left feeling inspired to join with the broad movement for justice, democracy, and equality.
“Border Patrol agents are scouting out certain areas here,” Alex, who preferred not to give a last name, told People’s World. Some Latinos voted for Trump out of economic concerns, he said, but he wonders what he will do to them now that he’s in office.
“He’s threatening people who helped him. Yet he is going to deport them and separate them from their families. Are Latinos even considered human in 2025?”
Yaraletzy Escobedo Martinez told People’s World that she’s very worried about what the future holds now. “Next week in Chicago, deportations are being planned and many families are at risk. Innocent children will be separated from their families. All they wanted was for the American Dream and now it will be taken from them.
“Trump is claiming to be a hero for ‘saving’ TikTok and supposedly for the economy,” she said. “But is he really a hero for all citizens?”
The struggle against militarism
“A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death,” King said in his “Beyond Vietnam” speech. While some told King to not speak out on the Vietnam War, he said that he could not separate issues of poverty, racism, and war.
For this year’s People’s Spirit of Detroit Awards, the Detroit MLK Day Committee honored the students and peace activists at the three major universities here—University of Michigan, Wayne State University, and Michigan State University—for their brave stances in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
The students, who established campus encampments and walkouts to pressure their universities to divest from Israel due to its genocidal war in Gaza, were brought on stage and honored by the hundreds of attendees. The organizations included the Students for Justice in Palestine chapters at all three universities, the TAHRIR Coalition at UMich, SAFE UMich, the Hurriya Coalition at MSU, and their allies.
Jesse Estrada, a student leader at MSU and a member of the Young Communist League, told People’s World that the “real award goes to the brave resistance of the Palestinian people.” He echoed the calls made by the TAHRIR Coalition and SAFE to keep the pressure on Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel to drop the felony charges against the students at UMich.
“We must struggle for a real university system that puts people before profit.”
Last week, the long fought for ceasefire deal between the Palestinian resistance and Israel had been reached, and the activists here welcomed the news. But they also warned of the necessity to remain vigilant and continue to fight for the liberation of the Palestinian people.
“This ceasefire milestone is not a victory for Trump or for Biden” as is being declared by both parties, said Nada of the Palestinian Youth Movement Detroit. “We cannot let them silence us. A full end to the genocide must be secured.”
“Ceasefire today, liberation tomorrow!” she declared.
Ismail Noor, a Nakba survivor and decades-long Palestinian solidarity activist here, spoke with People’s World about the ceasefire agreement.
“The struggle continues—we are not at a point yet where we can say that we are liberated. But this is the starting point,” he said.
The struggle goes on
Nancy Parker, the director of the Detroit Justice Center, closed out the program before activists chanted in unison together: “The people united will never be defeated!”
“This is a tender moment we find ourselves in,” she said. “Let’s commit to organize a broader and build a bigger, badder, intersectional movement.
“Do not retreat. This is our time to resist and to do so in an organized way. We cannot sit by as those coming to power seek to normalize fascism…and no matter what fight—whether for equality, for labor rights, for immigrant rights, LGBTQ rights—one attack on any of them is an attack on them all.
“It is our duty to fight for our collective freedom…and that is the true legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”
Michael Shane, one of the core organizers of the Detroit MLK Day Committee, told People’s World that this year’s event was significant because it brought together working people and fighters from every generation, from high school students to veterans of the Civil Rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s.
“For some, this was their first political event ever. The message of unity in struggle came through in speech after speech today. I am optimistic that we will build a multinational and multigenerational movement to confront the fascist threat in front of us. Today was the opening shot in our fight for a better world.”
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