Senate President Praises Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. And His Work on Economic Justice

Trenton – Senate President Steve Sweeney issued the following statement today in honor of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., holiday:

“In the final weeks before his death, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., began moving well beyond his cry for civil rights and voting rights to everyday realities facing too many African-American families in the 1960s, such as being able to find work that paid a livable wage, finding affordable housing, and accessing higher education and jobs skills that remained out of reach because of institutional racism and segregation.

“Indeed, in that time period, Reverend King led a campaign to bring equitable and affordable housing to minority communities in Chicago, and launched his ‘Poor People’s Campaign,’ realizing that alongside education, income and housing were the keys to a better life. We saw him fight valiantly for sanitation workers in Memphis who had been underpaid and had been forced to work dangerous jobs with little protection and no regard for their health or well-being.

“As we in New Jersey continue to support Reverend King’s calls for justice and equality these 50 years later, we hope to move beyond what he once called the ‘shallow things,’ to meat and potato issues that constitute forms of economic justice, which of course are also forms of social justice. We have to better enable black-owned businesses to grow in scale, and see them have more access to capital so they can hire more people, and start to break the cycle of unemployment in our urban communities.

“Today at events hosted by Rowan University and also in Newark at a town hall presented by the Reverend Dr. David Jefferson, I sought to emphasize these points and to bring home the still vital message of equality in all areas of life. Later in the afternoon, I will be participating in a Zoom meeting with former Governor McGreevey and Reverend Bolivar Flores to continue to bolster the efforts of the New Jersey Reentry Corporation, a compassionate, practical form of economic and social justice that I’m sure Reverend King would have championed.”