‘We cannot be silent’: Kansas City civil rights groups join to commemorate MLK’s march
Commemorating the 57th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s March on Washington, Kansas City civil rights groups joined Friday for a march calling for justice and peace in the city.
The march, organized by the local chapters of the NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Kansas City and the Urban League, started at 12th and Locust in Kansas City at 3 p.m. and progressed toward the Liberty Memorial.
The Rev. Vernon P. Howard, SCLC president, said the march was planned because of a number of persisting injustices, including racism, lynching of Black Americans, voter suppression and “dictatorships in the White House.”
“We cannot be silent,” he said. “If we are silent we are complicit.”
As hundreds of demonstrators marched through downtown Kansas City, they chanted “no justice, no peace,” “whose streets, our streets” and the names of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, as well as Cameron Lamb, Donnie Sanders, Terrance Bridges and Ryan Stokes, four Black men who were shot and killed by Kansas City police officers.
Marchers carried signs proclaiming that Black Lives Matter, as well as the American flag and the red, black and green Black liberation flag.
Members of multiple organizations attended.
“All of the not-for-profits, all of the racial justice organizations have come together today to fight for the exact same things in Kansas City, and that’s police reform,” said Lora McDonald, executive director of the Metro Organization for Racial and Economic Equity.
The Rev. Tex Sample, pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Kansas City, who marched twice with King, said Friday’s march was important.
“It’s part of the energy of the movement and we really need a movement right now. What we also need to do is organize around that movement so we’ve got something that will last and stay with us,” Sample said.
The march concluded on the steps of the Liberty Memorial, where U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver commended march leaders and participants for continuing the work King and others started decades ago.
“This nation was born out of protest,” Cleaver said. “It is American as America. We have not only the right to protest but we are negligent if we don’t protest when we see something wrong.”
Cleaver continued: “Even a bug will wiggle if you step on it. If you are stepped on, then you ought to at least wiggle, and you have wiggled your way on all of the way from City Hall down here today because things must change.”
This story was originally published September 4, 2020 at 4:44 PM.
