ERASE RACISM STATEMENT IN ADVANCE OF MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY 2025
Syosset, NY – January 17, 2025 – Laura Harding, President of ERASE Racism, issued today the following statement reflecting on this coming Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day:
This year marks the 60th Anniversary of numerous momentous milestones in the history of civil rights in America, in which Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a leading participant. Key among them are the March from Selma to Montgomery, which galvanized national attention, and enactment of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Those two events in particular, however, tend to suggest that racism and its devastating impact only existed in the South and in Washington, DC. The birth in 1965 of the Chicago Freedom Movement underscored the need for civil rights in the North, especially in its suburbs, and it has special relevance to Long Island, where many of those same challenges remain 60 years later.
The Chicago Freedom Movement, led byDr. Martin Luther King Jr., among others, was created, as Black Past recounts, “to challenge systemic racial segregation and discrimination in Chicago and its suburbs. The movement … addressed a variety of issues facing black Chicago residents, including segregated housing, educational deficiencies, income, employment, and health disparities based on racism and black community development.”
Here was a movement addressing the way systemic and structural racism occurred in northern cities and their suburbs. In many ways, it was a precursor to ERASE Racism.
Unfortunately, 60 years later, the list of challenges that the Chicago Freedom Movement sought to address are virtually identical to the challenges facing Long Island today: segregated housing, educational inequity, and income, employment, and health disparities as a result of structural racism and disinvestment in the black community. The first two of those – housing and education – are the primary focus of ERASE Racism’s current work.
As we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day on January 20, America will be transitioning to a new federal administration that is focused on dismantling gains in civil rights and ending the progress made in using DEI to end structural racism. On this day and always, Dr. King serves as a contemporary inspiration and exemplar for challenging the status quo of racial inequality in education and housing on Long Island, across New York, and nationwide. Dr. King’s organizing, speeches, writing, and leadership are roadmaps we can use in the ongoing quest for racial justice, in which he was so pivotally involved.
In celebration of the national holiday – and Dr. King’s life and legacy – let’s recommit ourselves to tackling these issues that Dr. King highlighted 60 years ago and that still underscore the ongoing impact of structural racism. Let’s remember that ERASE Racism continues his commitment today. It’s his work that inspires our drive and determination, as we start the new year.
To speak with Laura Harding, contact Henry Miller – hmiller@highimpactpartnering.com or 917-921-8034.
ERASE Racism is a New York-based civil rights organization that exposes and addresses the devastating impact of historical and ongoing structural racism, particularly in public school education and housing. It does so through research, policy advocacy, legal action, and educating and mobilizing the public – driving policy change at local, regional and statewide levels and through national coalitions. It has been recognized locally and nationally for its cutting-edge work.