Thousands Rally as One Across Wisconsin to Mark April 4

At more than 1,000 events across the country, communities joined together in unity to mark the 43rd anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.—and to protect the very rights he died to protect. Building on the momentum that started here in Wisconsin, nurses, firefighters, teachers, people of faith, students and community members stood together in streets, parks and state Capitol buildings across America.

In Wisconsin, thousands stood united against the political attacks against working families and the middle class with over 30 different events in more than two dozen cities. Teach-ins, movie screenings, rallies, marches and candlelight vigils were held in Appleton, Beloit, DePere, Eau Claire, Fond du Lac, Green Bay, Janesville, Kaukauna, Kenosha, La Crosse, Madison, Menomonie, Milwaukee, Oconto Falls, Oshkosh, Platteville, Racine, Ripon, River Falls, Shawano, Sheboygan, Steven’s Point and Wausau.


“Forty three years after the assassination of Dr. King, working men and women face politically motivated attacks aimed at silencing their rights and voices,” said Clay Christenson, city of Madison firefighter with IAFF Local 311. “Unfortunately, the efforts to undermine the middle class have spread from state capitol to state capitol. Today, we stand together not only against Scott Walker’s attempts to destroy more than 50 years of labor-management cooperation in Wisconsin, but against the attacks on workers nationwide.”

“Being a union member is more than fighting for fair wages, it’s about fighting for human rights,” said Bobby Staples, a Milwaukee area retired registered nurse with the Wisconsin Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, AFT Local 5001. “The struggle has been a hard one but we are still moving toward ‘the mountaintop.’ We’re building on Dr. King’s fight for economic so that future generations can grow up in a country of opportunity, and not in a land where the gap between rich and poor keeps growing.”

“I am not a union member but I came out to support workers’ rights, collective bargaining and Wisconsin’s middle class today,” said Lynn Hirsch, a retired social worker from the Madison area who brought her grandchildren to the rally at the Capitol. “The whole community has come together to honor Dr. King and the workers of America. We will not stand for these outrageous political attacks that seem to be sweeping the nation from conservative governors.”

The Rev. Jesse Jackson joined the rally in Madison along with two of the original AFSCME sanitation workers who fought for the right to collectively bargain with the city of Memphis in 1968. Jesse Jackson encouraged Wisconsinites to “come alive, April 5″ and vote tomorrow.

“When we vote, we show the world that one bullet cannot kill a movement,” explained Rev. Jackson. “When we vote, we make Dr. King happy.”

The rally in Madison was followed by a march led by Rev. Jesse Jackson and students around the Capitol to Martin Luther King Drive, where student activist groups, people of faith and the community held a candlelight vigil.

Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, while supporting striking AFSCME sanitation workers in Memphis who were fighting for the right to collectively bargain for a better life.

Yet 43 years later, in Wisconsin and across the country, well-funded, right-wing corporate politicians are trying to take away the rights King gave his life for: the right to collectively bargain, to vote, to afford a college education and justice for all workers, immigrant and native-born. This year to commemorate his sacrifice, Wisconsinites organized throughout the state to revive King’s dream.
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