Tacoma’s MLK Day: Leaders call for economic justice
Elected officials and community leaders reminded the hundreds gathered on the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday that there is still work to be done, particularly on economic equality.
Governor Jay Inslee told the audience at the Greater Tacoma Convention Center on Monday that Washington needed to follow through on phase three of King’s dream.
“It is time, I believe, for the state of Washington to turn to that third step of justice—economic justice,” Inslee said.
King advocated for economic equality. He organized a 1968 march for the Poor People’s Campaign to fight for the rights of low-income households.
“God never intended for one group of people to live in superfluous, inordinate wealth, while others live in abject, deadening poverty,” King said in his 1963 book “Strength to Love.”
He was assassinated April 4, 1968, in Memphis. King would have been 91 this year.
The keynote speaker, Evergreen State College Dean Marcia Tate Arunga, said there is a war on poverty. According to 2018 U.S. Census Bureau data, 11.8 percent of Americans live under the poverty line.
Arunga said King was a moral compass, and if he saw the amount of poverty that still exists in the states, she doesn’t know what he would think.
“I don’t know exactly how Martin Luther King would feel about being here today,” Arunga said.
“Wake up”
Speakers addressed the 32nd annual celebration’s theme, “Vision 2020: Beyond the Dream,” as one that requires Tacoma to get involved now, not tomorrow.
Mayor Victoria Woodards told Tacoma to “wake up.”
“We might believe that when we got Barack Obama elected that it was going to be a better United States,” Woodards said. “But then we have what we have now, and that clearly tells me that we went to sleep for a minute.”
She said it’s vital that the city does not rely on the work done by others, because there is still much to be done for equality.
“Don’t close a blind eye to the things that happen around you because if you do, then you accept them and make them OK.,” Woodards said.
The MLK Emerging Leader Community Service Award recipient was Kiara Daniels. Daniels has served on Tacoma committees, worked with local nonprofits and helped Tacoma Housing Authority engage with the community on affordable housing. Daniels works in community relations at nonprofit Spaceworks Tacoma.
The Tacoma Community House won the MLK Lifetime Service Award as a space to help immigrants and disenfranchised groups become self-sufficient.
The annual celebration included performances from the Lincoln High School Drumline, Las Molas Panamanian Association, and the Vision Step Team.
This story was originally published January 20, 2020 at 3:39 PM.
