Movement
April 4th, 2018 will mark the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s, assassination. In his last book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? (1968), addressing the dilemma of African Americans, Dr. King said, “The central quality in the Negro’s life is pain – pain so old so deep that its shows in almost every moment of his [her] existence” (King, pg. 109).
Dr. King suggested that our families work in unity to change our dilemma. He reminded us that our “oppression has again and again divided and splintered them. We are a people torn apart from era to era.” According to our beloved Dr. King, it is our unity and the resistance to our dilemma that will allow us to change our conditions:
It is logical, moral and psychologically constructive for us to resist oppression united as families. Out of this unity, out of the bond of fighting together, forges will come. The inner strength and integrity will make us whole again. (pg. 115)
Call to Action
To those of us who agree with these profound words of the late Dr. King, we must respond in kind with action. With the net worth of a single Black women at $5, and the net worth of a Black family in Boston at $8, we can’t sit back anymore.
Fifty years after Dr. King’s assassination, we still have families living in tremendous poverty. The public schools are preparation for incarceration; with gentrification, housing in the city is becoming increasingly unaffordable.
SEIZE THE TIME
Join Us
We cannot allow the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination go by without properly acknowledging the values he lived and died for. The Boston Coalition for Freedom is calling on students, parents, the religious community, unions, sororities, fraternities, activists and workers to join us on April 4th from 4pm to 6pm for a Community Stand Out and Stand Up.
We will line the streets with people holding posters of Dr. King. We will begin from Dudley Station, spreading out as far as we can go. We are asking community residents and local businesses to place a photo or poster of Dr. King in their windows.
Let us join each other in making a powerful statement of unity in our communities and the continued need to organize and change our conditions. Our Community Stand Out and Stand Up will reflect what Dr. King called in his 1967 denunciation of the Vietnam War, a “revolution of values.” In that speech, Dr. King called on us to focus on creating a “person-oriented society” and not a “thing-oriented society.”
Please contribute what you can to make to enhance the success of this movement. We appreciate your support:
Commemorate the 50th Anniversary of
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Assassination
Join the Community Stand Out and Stand Up
April 4th
4-6 pm
Starting at Dudley Station
The April 4th Movement is a tribute to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, coordinated by the Boston Coalition for Freedom. The commemoration has several components.
1. It has created a April 4th Movement High School Fellowship Program that will select 250 High school students, equally males and females, from Boston Public High School to:
A) Give two books to the selected Fellows, one being Dr. King’s last book: Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community, and hold a discussion on the Black Freedom Movement and the need to rebuild it;
B) To organize a community action project that commemorates the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination.
2. To Organize a Community Stand Out and Stand Up, people lined up in the streets, holding posters of Dr. King on April 4th from 4pm to 6pm beginning at Dudley Station and reaching as far as it can go down Dudley and Warren Street in Roxbury. Also to encourage community residents and local business owners to post the Coalition’s photo or posters of Dr. King in their windows.
We are calling on students, parents, the religious community, unions, sororities, fraternities, activist, and workers to join us and support the April 4th Movement.
The Boston April 4th Movement will be a community outreach and education campaign to honor the legacy and the values of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. This date marks the 50th anniversary of his assassination. We hope to unite as a community for a day of commemoration and mobilization of the youth, parents, workers, sororities, fraternities, and the religious community to practice the message of Dr. King.
The funds will be used to support The April 4t Movement High School Fellowship Program, in which selected high school students will receive books, and T shirts. It will also be used to make posters and stickers to promote the commemoration.
We hope to have our funds by April 4th.
By supporting the planning of our event not only are you honoring the legacy and values of Dr. King but will be actively supporting his message and helping the communities all over Boston to come together in a day of commemoration. Also, you will be creating beautiful memories for hundreds of youth and provide them with the teachings of Dr. King helping their development as students and future leaders of our communities
We are extremely grateful for your contribution no matter how small. All money donated will go to shaping a powerful, healing and informative commemoration for the 50th anniversary of the legacy and values of Dr. King.
