New York City to Honor Rosa Parks with Wall Street Rally and March on December 1

Rep. Cynthia McKinney, Ramsey Clark, City Council Member Charles Barron, Ben Cheney to address Wall St. Rally Against War, Poverty & Racism

On December 1, in dozens of cities and towns, tens of thousands of activists will honor Rosa Parks with a Nationwide Day of Absence Against Poverty, Racism & War. In New York, the day will be marked by a massive rally and march, beginning at Wall Street and Broadway at 3:00 pm.

Speakers at the rally will include civil rights struggle veterans like Ben Chaney, the brother of James Chaney, who was one of three civil rights workers murdered in Mississippi in 1964; members of the New York City Council, including Letitia James, Yvonne Clark, Helen Foster and Charles Barron; Former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark; Rep. Cynthia McKinney; members of the clergy; military veterans and families; and community organizers.

The December 1 events are being organized by the Rosa Parks 50th Anniversary Nationwide Day Of Absence Coalition, made up of over 1000 local and national organizations, including the Baltimore NAACP, Troops Out Now Coalition, Teamsters National Black Caucus and many other antiwar and civil rights groups and individuals.

Leilani Dowell, a youth organizer for the Rosa Parks Anniversary Coalition said, “The demand to bring the troops home now from Iraq will be echoed across the country on December 1 and it should be that way because Dr. Martin Luther King who came on the scene during the Montgomery boycott, concluded that fighting legalized segregation was not enough.”

“King saw poverty racism and militarism as the main enemies of human progress,” Dowell continued, “which is why he opposed the Vietnam War and advocated that everyone should have a right to a job that pays a living wage. On December 1, we will honor Rosa Parks with the same sp”