The 15th annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Justice Program and March will be held on Monday, Jan. 18, 2016 – the national holiday – at 1:00 pm at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, 1927 N. 4th St., Milwaukee.
The commemorative program will be followed at 2:30 pm by a three block march to Dr. King’s statue on M. L. King Drive, just north of Walnut St., where there will be an open microphone to reflect on Dr. King’s work.
The theme of this year’s event is based on the title of King’s book, “Where do we go from here? Chaos or Community?”
Performers will include singer Dorothy Jackson, actor Andre Lee Ellis, singer Erica Lofton of Girls in Action, and jazz saxophonist Juli Wood.
Honor will be given Casa Maria Catholic Worker (speaker Don Timmerman) and WAVE (Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort – speaker Jeri Bonavia) for their longtime work to end gun violence.
Local grassroots organizations challenging the chaos around us and working to build community in its place will be recognized. They include Voces de la Frontera (Christine Neuman-Ortiz), Amalgamated Transit Union (James Macon), 350 Milwaukee (Wendell Harris), Wis. Jobs Now, Milwaukee Justice Coalition (Maria Hamilton), and The Peace Park and Garden ( Fidel Verdin).
The event is sponsored by the Martin Luther King Justice Coalition. The coalition organized this event for the past 15 years and includes grassroots groups working on issues of nonviolence, poverty, homelessness, economic justice and peace.
This year’s coalition includes St. Francis Church, Peace Action Wis., Casa Maria Catholic Worker, Veterans for Peace, Greater Milwaukee Green Party, Injured Workers Center, Voces de la Frontera, Summer of Peace, Welfare Warriors, Milwaukee Branch Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, Progressive Democrats of America in Milw. County, WAVE (Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort), Marquette University Center for Peacemaking, the Milwaukee Justice Coalition, 9 to 5, Wisconsin Conference of Branches NAACP, 350 Milwaukee, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, SEIU, Catholics for Peace and Justice, All People’s Church, Riverwest Neighborhood Association, Mothers for Justice.
