The Dr. Martin Luther King Day celebration at Reverend Al Sharpton’s National Action Network (NAN) Monday took aim at far right extremists and raised up elected officials of color in this all-important election year.
Sharpton hosted some of the city and state’s most prominent elected officials in Harlem to discuss their policies and views in honor of MLK Day. While the prominent speakers recognized the sacrifices King made during his lifetime, they also noted what has happened since his death thanks to the path he walked.
“What would happen if they gave black people’s the ballot, if they gave us the vote? You know what would happen? Tish James happened. You know what would happen? Andrea Stewart-Cousins happened,” Stewart-Cousins herself, the state Senate Majority Leader, told a roaring crowd. “Mayor Adams happened.”
Mayor Eric Adams agreed with this sentiment. Naming elected officials from City Council member to House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, Hizzoner lauded Dr. King for leading the way for men and women of color to become leaders in their communities, and all aspects of government.
“We have got all this chocolate,” Adams said with a smile. “This is what King fought for. This is what it was about. Now we have it, what are we going to do with it, that is the question that we must answer. We are in a position of power and authority to really change the direction of this entire country.”
While some like the mayor asked about the next progressive steps New York and the country as a whole can take, other speakers charged against right-wing elected officials whom, they say, are trying to take the country backward.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer did not pull any punches when it came to his far-right adversaries. While Schumer went as far as to call them “off the deep end” he also made an effort to distinguish diehard Trump supporters from traditional Republican voters.
“We are fighting these MAGA Republicans. I was just talking with the Reverend about this: You have 30 extreme right-wing MAGA Republicans, their views are way off the deep end — even most Republicans don’t agree — and they think they can bully the House, the Senate, and President Biden into passing their agenda,” Schumer said. “They will not win, and we will not let them shut the government down.”
Attorney General Letitia James also touched upon the far-right in America and her civil fraud case against Donald Trump, the former president. She said the spirit of Dr. King guided her as her office sought the case against Trump, who has repeatedly attacked her character and slandered the case as political retribution — something which he vows to take if re-elected.
“No matter how many names they want to call me, no matter how many fronts to my professionalism, and to me as a person no matter how many names you want to call me, because the reality is by calling me names, it’s basically a story of my life all throughout my life,” James said. “People that voted against me, and each and every time I’ve risen up, and I’ve ignored all of the haters because Dr. King has taught me that a lie will not live forever.”
