Thousands march in Santa Cruz to honor life and legacy of MLK Jr.
President Donald Trump started this MLK day at his gold club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
But thousands in Santa Cruz took to the streets, marching for social justice.
Music, dancing, signs of support everywhere. Thousands gathered in downtown Santa Cruz to honor Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his legacy.
“The dream is equality for all. No matter transgender, lesbian, gay, black, white, females, everything,” says Brenda Whitley, Santa Cruz County NAACP Secretary
But the fiftieth anniversary commemorating King’s life is marked with national division, conflict, and alarming discrimination.
This past year, white nationalists openly marched on college campuses, the president used profanity when describing Haiti and some African nations, and dozens of sexual assault accusations took down high profile men in Hollywood and beyond.
These high school students from Santa Cruz say unity is more important than ever.
“We can’t fight for ourselves alone. And I think that the stronger our community is, and the stronger that people realize kids and adults and everybody really care about these issues, then we will start to make a change,” says Carmen Azmitia.
Some feel the president should take the lead
“It sort of shows that Donald Trump should not continuing on tweeting those hurtful things, saying hurtful things about African Americans and Haitians, and everything else that’s hateful that he says,” Mei Curry, Marcher.
Congressmen Jimmy Panetta also joined the march.
He one way we can begin moving towards acceptance, he says, is to let undocumented students stay for good.
“As we’ve seen, it’s very difficult with the negative comments that have been put out there. But we have to get past that and make sure that we work to protect the people that are important to our community to our country and to our culture, and that’s our dreamers, definitely right now.”
