April 2, 2008

Memphis Recommitment March






I heard Rev. Al on Air America tonight. His exuberance was so inspiring that wish I could join everyone in Memphis. And when he said people's lives were going to be changed just by being there, I believed it. Join the National Action Network. Learn our history and carry it forward!

World trains lens on Memphis on 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s death
By Michael Lollar
Monday, March 31, 2008
Only in the immediate aftermath of the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. has Memphis had a brighter spotlight cast on its attitude, its bearing and its character than it will likely feel during this week's commemoration of the 40th anniversary of King's death.

"I think maybe it's a sign of the times. The global media is here this time," says National Civil Rights Museum president Beverly Robertson. The intersection of national politics, race and the milestone King anniversary have combined to put Memphis in a rare fishbowl on the international stage, she says.

In a sermon Sunday at New Sardis Baptist Church, Rev. Al Sharpton said visitors from around the world will be looking "at the state of affairs in Memphis. Has Memphis progressed or regressed? We know you have a black mayor, but how is the average white life versus the average black life?" Sharpton, president of the National Action Network (NAN), said later, "It is impossible to spend a few days in this city without thinking of it as a microcosm of what happened to Dr. King's dream."

NANs 2008 national convention is here this week, held for the first time outside New York. "I just wanted to be at the landmark where King died. I think it can be a life-changing moment to be there at the moment -- 6:01 p.m. -- 40 years later," Sharpton said. To mark that moment, he is leading a "recommitment march" from City Hall to the National Civil Rights Museum on Friday, with the arrival at the museum symbolizing a fresh start. "We will ask everyone to make a silent commitment to themselves for social justice," Sharpton said. News teams from around the world are also converging on Memphis. (For the Full Story Click Here
http://www.nationalactionnetwork.net/

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