PARADES were cancelled or replaced with online rallies across the United States today as the country marked Martin Luther King Jnr Day amid the ongoing coronavirus crisis.
Events organisers said the federal holiday, which falls on the third Monday in January, was especially important following the year in which Black Lives Matter swept the country and days before a new president replaces Donald Trump, who emboldened white supremacists.
Faith Morris of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, referenced the Republican fixation with voter suppression, saying: “You can’t help but make the parallels between what Dr King was fighting for and all that we’ve been dealing with now.
It isn t the same : Cities host muted MLK Day celebrations after year of loss for many Black Americans Marc Ramirez, USA TODAY
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This year, the campus of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, will be eerily empty on Martin Luther King Jr. Day: Gone will be the children and families enjoying the day’s activities – as many as 12,000 visitors on a good-weather day – and the crowds donating food or giving blood.
“With the pandemic, it’s hard to do that,” said Faith Morris, chief marketing and external affairs officer for the museum, which is marking the holiday online. “We will try to give those feelings virtually, but it’s not lost on us that it does in some form take away from the sentiment of the movement.”
This year, the campus of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, will be eerily empty on Martin Luther King Jr. Day: Gone will be the children and families enjoying the day’s activities – as many as 12,000 visitors on a good-weather day – and the crowds donating food or giving blood.
“With the pandemic, it’s hard to do that,” said Faith Morris, chief marketing and external affairs officer for the museum, which is marking the holiday online. “We will try to give those feelings virtually, but it’s not lost on us that it does in some form take away from the sentiment of the movement.”
Lawrence Johnson, an attorney and civil rights leader who served for a decade on the Waco City Council, died Friday after battling COVID-19, family members said.
Johnson, 72, was hospitalized with the virus and placed on a ventilator in mid-December, attorney and friend Michael B. Roberts said.
âHis death has simply been a gut punch,â Roberts said.
He said Johnson was at particular risk because he was African-American and had underlying health conditions.
âHe was one of the people in a large group that didnât need to contract this illness,â he said. âHe did have some underlying conditions that would exacerbate the effects of COVID-19, but we remained prayerful and hopeful.â
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