Virtual MLK Love March Puts Tumultuous Week In Perspective

To Rev. Boise Kimber, last week’s Capitol insurrection inspired by the president is proof that systemic racism is ​“here to stay.”

To U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Thursday night’s $1.9 trillion economic plan proposed by the president-elect is proof that sound public policy can undo the material harms of hate.

Kimber and DeLauro offered those takes on the past nine days of national political tumult Friday morning during the 51st annual Martin Luther King Jr. Love March.

Friday’s local celebration of the iconic civil rights leader’s birthday was not held on the streets of Goatville and in the pews of Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church on Lawrence Street as it has been every January for the past half century. Because of the pandemic, Shiloh’s Rev. Kennedy Hampton, Sr. hosted Friday’s virtual Love March online via Zoom.

He traded the event’s traditional keynote address for a panel discussion among DeLauro, Kimber, Mayor Justin Elicker, and former State Rep. Bill Dyson about what the past week-plus in national politics revealed about race relations, economic justice, and the ​“two Americas” that MLK zeroed in on over five decades ago.

Kennedy played a video of the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis speaking of the necessity of getting into ​“good trouble.”

The he repeated a quotation of King’s referenced by the late Congressman: ​“We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.”

Hampton reflected on a week-plus that has seen a Conference flag-waving mob incited by President Donald Trump attack the U.S. Capitol seeking to kill elected officials and stop the certification of a presidential election; the impeachment of the president; the unveiling of a $1.9 trillion economic relief program by President-Elect Joe Biden, and nationwide preparations for more insurgent violence in the run-up to Biden’s inauguration. And that’s not to mention the ongoing public health and economic mass hurt caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“I wonder, if Dr. King was here today, looking at the climate around us, would he think that we were living together, or are we on a road where we will soon perish as fools?”

Kimber: Racism Is ​“Here To Stay”

Kimber, who helms the First Calvary Baptist Church on Dixwell Avenue, described the defining moment of the past week — the attack on the Capitol — as a moment of clarity and despair for Black Americans.

“The fight will never end for Black America,” he said. ​“You will never get rid of racism. It’s here to stay. It has been here for 401 years. What makes us think that racism is going to disappear over night, or even over years?”

He said he believes the Capitol riot was inspired in part by Black people turning out to vote in Georgia, electing Rev. Raphael Warnock to the U.S. Senate and helping Democrats regain control of the upper chamber of the U.S. legislature.

“We live in two Americas. We live in a Black America, and we live in a white America,” Kimber said. ​“Dr. King’s voice has been hushed into judgment. There need to be new voices, new people sounding the alarm.”

Dyson, who represented New Haven in the state legislature for over three decades, agreed with Kimber’s call for a new generation of leaders to fight for racial justice.

And he agreed that last week’s Capitol attack revealed the ​“stark reality of some of the things that haven’t changed” in this country since Dr. King’s time.

“I think it’s fair to say that, if the group looked like another group with another color, that the response to that group wouldn’t have been the same. It would have been very different,” Dyson said, echoing that same criticism of white privilege that many Black New Haven leaders have offered since last week.

Elicker agreed, describing the insurrectionists as ​“domestic terrorists” and the Capitol attack as ​“one of the darkest moments in this nation’s history.”

Kimber pointed out that 197 Republicans voted not to impeach Trump on Wednesday — even after their very lives were endangered by a mob incited by the president. That speaks volumes, he said, as to the staying power of white privilege and systemic racism in this country’s politics.

DeLauro: Gov’t Policy Provides Path Forward

DeLauro, who is the new chair of House Appropriations Committee, was at the Capitol during last week’s attack. She spent as much time at Friday’s virtual event talking about the constructive potential of government revealed in the past 24 hours as about the ​“horrific violence” unleashed by the president.

“There are still two Americas, from criminal justice to healthcare, and the line is quite clear. But we did take a positive step forward last night when the president-elect spoke about his American Rescue plan, a path forward to lift this country of out a health crisis, an economic crisis.” She quoted Biden as saying on Thursday night, ​“A crisis of deep human suffering is in plain sight, and there is no time to waste.”

DeLauro pointed to the successful organizing work in Georgia led by Stacey Abrams. She pointed to the definitive victory of Joe Biden and Vice-President Elect Kamala Harris in November’s election. And she pointed to $1.9 trillion that could and should be directed towards undoing some of the harms of a structural unequal economic system.

“We have to turn out those people” who voted to overturn a lawful election and who abet such racist violence, she said. She also said ​“we are now focused on where we can go from a government perspective.”

How do you combat racism in the healthcare system, in education, in criminal justice?

She said that a child tax credit plan that would lift 50 percent of African American children and their families out of poverty is one such specific, policy-oriented means of combating racism.

“It is wrong that Black women die in childbirth in greater numbers. That can be addressed, that can be turned around” through government, ​“courage and leadership.”

“Together we will march through this pandemic,” she continued. ​“We will march until Black men are no longer killed by police violence and Black mothers no longer die by preventable diseases. We will march until the wage gap is closed, our schools are equal, and are children are safe.”