MLK Jr. Celebration Saturday in Saranac Lake
SARANAC LAKE – There will be a celebration of Martin Luther King’s life from 7 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 19 at the First Presbyterian Church Great Hall.
Attendees wiill hear Dr. King’s words on the need for social and economic justice, listen to Joe Paparone speak on the revival of Dr. King’s last project — the Poor People’s Campaign — and discuss ways we can continue this legacy today in our community. There will be music and refreshments.
The Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival is updating Martin Luther King’s last social action project. Planning began in 2017 to carry forward Martin Luther King’s campaign to gain economic justice for poor people in the United States. In 1968, following Martin Luther King’s assassination, the Rev. Ralph Abernathy carried out the 1968 Poor People’s Campaign or Poor People’s March by establishing the 3,000 person protest camp on the Washington Mall where protestors stayed for six weeks in the spring of 1968. The current revival broadens the agenda from Martin Luther King’s focus on jobs and racism to include poverty and economic inequality, voter disenfranchisement, ecological devastation, war economy and militarism.
At a meeting on Dec. 4. more than 20 local residents gathered to meet with Joe Paparone, a North Country organizer for the new Poor People’s Campaign.
Paparone will share his experience, and the group will discuss ways people in Saranac Lake struggle to make ends meet and have difficulty with financial and social stability. This will inform the social action people undertake now in Saranac Lake.