Allan Appel Photo
The Love March.
President Donald Trump’s policies and especially his recent “shithole” statements about Africa and Haiti inspired the 150 people who prayed and hit the streets for New Haven’s 48th annual Martin Luther King Day “Love March.”
No, they didn’t agree with Trump’s statements. They statements gave them renewed energy to carry on King’s fight for racial and social justice.
The church service and street march, which always take place on Martin Luther King Jr.‘s birthday, was founded by Rev. George W. Hampton at his Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church on Lawrence Avenue in East Rock.
It is is now in its 48th edition, helmed by his sons, the Revs. Kennedy D. Hampton Sr. and Gerald Hampton.
Monday morning, marchers carried signs and performed a chant and song-filled circumambulation that took them down Lawrence Street to Whitney Avenue, back east across Humphrey to State, and then back into the warmth of the church’s sanctuary at 100 Lawrence.
Both marchers and sermonizers refused to let Trump’s statements and policies dampen the enthusiasm of the parade. They said they found reason to reinvigorate the battle for social justice.
Bishop Street resident Laura Fawcett, who loves the chanting, came out to cheer marchers on.
“Come on, misogyny!” called out the event’s chief speaker, Rev. Frederick Streets, senior pastor at the Dixwell Avenue United Congregational Church, in the peroration of his stem-winder. “Come on, racism, so we can knock you down.”
In an address titled “Healing A Nation,” Streets bemoaned the abject state of official public life when we are being compelled to accept new definitions of racism, misogyny, and greed by those people who practice those vices.
Rev. Fred Streets.
In a wide-ranging address, Streets quoted from Supreme Court Justice Roger Taney’s words on the inherent inferiority of the Negro in the Dred Scott Decision. “Sounds familiar today,” Streets remarked.
He quoted from the Bible, and Lord Acton’s famous warning to politicians that “Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
He said it is therefore more important today, an historical turning point, “to speak truth to power, fact to fiction, and honesty to hypocrisy.”
As a Chicagoan, he said, he is “proud of the senator [Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin] who spoke truth to power and called out the president for who he is.”
Shiloh Deacon Sam Byers, with Rev. Hargett and long-time marcher Ella Smith, who did not want to talk about Trump.
Streets concluded his remarks by saying, “Donald Trump and those like him might be serving the purpose of justice. Come on, racism. Come on, misogyny. The more their racism rises, the more we can knock it down. President Obama said, ‘Yes we can.’ Yes we did. Now it’s time to say, ‘Yes we will. We will be true to the real meaning of democracy.’”
Streets’ seeking-the-silver-lining remarks were echoed by marchers like the Rev. Anthony Hargett, also associated with the Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church.
“We see what disdain he [President Trump] has for poeple not white,” Hargett said. “It’s a curse and a blessing. It’s a curse that we’re denied what’s our due. But a blessing to us to help keep Martin Luther King’s legacy alive. We will overcome. It’s sad, but bad times bring out the best in people,” he said.
Board of Alders President Tyisha Walker was among the political figures at the march, which attracts representatives and senators. Other officials included Downtown Alder Abby Roth, State Sen. Gary Winfield, Mayor Toni Harp, schools Superintendent Reggie Mayo, and gubernatorial hopeful Guy Smith.
Walker, the Board of Alders’ first female president, said King paved a way “for people like me. You’ve got to be grateful.”
“I don’t want anything about Donald Trump to take away from Dr. King’s birthday. We will continue to do what’s necessary to make a just world for everybody in spite of Donald Trump,” she said.
Many marchers, like Ella Smith, had participated in many of the marches — in her case all but three of them since 1971. (“I promised Rev. Hampton I’d go to them all,” she said). For Jane and Patrick Rivers of Westville and their two daughters and nanny, the experience was a first.
The Rivers family starts a tradition.
Jane Rivers teaches math and the University of New Haven; her husband teaches music. They heard about the event from its advertising on WYBC and brought along their kids, daughters Naomi and Dalia, and nanny, Sharicia Culbreath.
Culbreath, who is from an island in the Caribbean, St. Kitts, has been in town eight years She said she loved the singing, the unity, and the kids. She said she tried not to listen to Trump’s remarks about Haiti, among other things, but said, “It’s hard not to hear them.”