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The Daily Tar Heel

MLK Day march unites 100 participants in fight against injustice

A group of about 100 people of all races, genders and ages united Monday to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy and encourage future action against injustice.

The diverse group marched from Chapel Hill’s Peace and Justice Plaza, down Franklin Street and to the First Baptist Church singing “We Shall Overcome” in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

“This is not a day off,” said Terrence Foushee, youth community chairman for the Chapel Hill-Carrboro National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. “This is a day on.”

Speakers at the event identified issues for future action and agreed the country would have to work together to address them.

They decried voter ID laws, increasing tuition costs and efforts to repeal North Carolina’s Racial Justice Act as areas in which inequality is increasing.

“Resist your color, subculture, categories and classes and realize that if we come together that the only value that will matter is the value of your index, which is one,” Foushee said.

Rev. Robert Campbell, the keynote speaker at the event and an opponent to a proposed charter school in the district, said education was the most important area on which to focus future action.

“The key to true justice is equality of education for all,” Campbell said. “Honoring his legacy means working together for education.”

Occupy protesters also made their presence felt at the rally.

C.J. Suitt, an Occupy Oakland protester who recited a poem at the rally, said there are strong parallels between the Occupy movement and King’s ideals.

“We are dealing with racism on some level but we’re also dealing with the byproducts of a capitalistic system,” Suitt said. “The Occupy movement is where the dream continues.”

Contact the City Editor at city@dailytarheel.com.

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