From Mountaintops to Valleys Low, King’s Presence & Words Prevailed Nationwide Monday, January 20
By Nayaba Arinde
Editor at Large
@NayabaArinde1
It was a unique historical moment on Monday, January 20th. Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s 96th birthday was honored as a federal holiday on the same day as Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration.
Folk on social media resurrected Dr. King’s quote to Harry Belafonte, “I’ve come to believe we’re integrating into a burning house. I’m afraid America may be losing what moral vision she had.”
Surprising some, Mayor Eric Adams, who had just visited Trump in Florida on Friday, attended the inauguration. In doing so, as he reportedly sat in the inauguration overflow room, he missed two scheduled Dr. MLK Jr. events: delivering remarks at BAM’s 39th Annual Brooklyn Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast and at Harlem’s Baptist Ministers’ Conference of Greater New York & Vicinity’s 57th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Celebration.
The criticism was swift.
“Staying in New York would have been a good opportunity to talk to his base about charting a path forward in Trump 2.0 and use MLK’s legacy as a way to root our collective investment in securing human rights for all,” said political operative and observer Professor Basil Smikle.
“Mayor Eric Adams is finally out of the closet as a Republican deciding to go to Trump’s inauguration on Dr. Martin Luther King’s Day for personal gain,” charged former City Councilman and Assemblyman Charles Barron. “It was disgraceful, but shows where his priorities lie, and they’re not with the city or the community, or the culture.”
This, as Trump immediately put into action his campaign promise to identify and round up the nation’s millions of undocumented immigrants, citing that ICE agents can go into schools, hospitals, and churches in their search. He also banned Birthright Citizenship. There was immediately actionable condemnation.
New York Attorney General Letitia James joined a coalition of 22 states challenging President Donald Trump’s Executive Order ending birthright citizenship, in violation of the constitutional right given to all children born in the United States.
A.G. James and the coalition filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts “seeking to stop the President’s unlawful action, which violates the 14th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and will harm American children.”
“The great promise of our nation is that everyone born here is a citizen of the United States, able to achieve the American dream,” said A. G. James. “This fundamental right to birthright citizenship, rooted in the 14th Amendment and born from the ashes of slavery, is a cornerstone of our nation’s commitment to justice.
Our constitution is not open to reinterpretation by executive order or presidential decree. President Trump’s attempt to undermine the fundamental right to birthright citizenship is not just unconstitutional, it is profoundly dangerous.”
“Today is a dark day in American history, with cruel and dangerous consequences for our immigrant communities and everyone who calls America home,” said Brooklyn’s Murad Awawdeh, President and CEO of New York Immigration Coalition.
“The incoming Trump administration is weaponizing the federal government against all immigrant communities – both people seeking safety in the future and those who are the backbone of our economy now—while at the same time undermining the very values and rights that were once considered intrinsic to the nation…By standing united, we can resist the Trump administration’s fear-mongering and attempts to marginalize and eliminate the rights of our neighbors—we can demand that our leaders protect all our freedoms, our families, and our futures.”
Adams told the press, “I’ve communicated with other immigrant groups over and over again. We want to bring down the anxiety. We want our immigrants to know that this is a city of immigrants. This is a country of immigrants. It’s imperative that you go to school, use the hospital service, use the police services.”
Donna Lieberman, the executive director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, said, “It’s scary to have an arm of government be such a threat, but it is, and there are a lot of good people and families, many of which have people of mixed-status that are very worried right now.”
With his DEI-suspending, birthright citizenship-challenging, and questionable cabinet nominees touting a MAGA mandate, Biden called the Trump administration a billionaire oligarch.
Accused of leaning more and more into the Republican fold, Adams told Tucker Carlson that he didn’t desert the Democrats, “No, the party left me, and it left working-class people.”
Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said, “Yes, NYC voted more red than usual but is emphatically not Trumpland. [The] NYC Mayor is going to the inauguration after a meeting with no government officials present.
On top of adopting MAGA rhetoric and policy, it provides a clear picture of personal interests NOT helping protect NYC residents.”
Adams compared himself to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King and said he was in DC to promote and protect the needs of NYC.
“Dr. King talked about—when he lost his life in Memphis, he was talking about the union workers. Dr. King talked about housing and fought [for] housing. He talked about the delivery of services and unemployment. My life is the life that Dr. King was talking about when he [said] he had a dream. I’m living that dream. And my desire to be in Washington to make sure I continue to move forward on that dream.”