Demonstrators in a “March on Wall Street” Thursday called on corporate America to push back against President Trump’s attack on diversity initiatives.
Carrying signs that said, “Stop Stealing Our Legacy,” protesters, led by the Rev. Al Sharpton and Martin Luther King III, took their financial fight to the seat of the nation’s economic power base.
“We come to Wall Street rather than Washington this year to let them know: you can try to turn back the clock, but you can’t turn back time,” Sharpton said as he kicked off the demonstration commemorating 1963’s historic March on Washington.
“We’re going to keep the dream alive on Wall Street.”
Sharpton’s “dream” reference was a nod to the iconic “I Have a Dream” speech Martin Luther King Jr. delivered to 250,000 people 62 years ago on Aug. 28 at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial.
Although the Wall Street crowd was considerably smaller, speakers, including King’s oldest son, touched on some of the same themes, noting the battles won since then, and the economic fights that continue today.
“It’s extraordinarily significant, but in the back of mind, I am thinking about how sad this is, that 62 years after dad delivered that dream for our nation and world, that we are in the position we are in,” Martin Luther King III said. “And the goal is to find ways to move this nation forward around economic inequality.”
At the top of the march’s agenda was Trump’s campaign against diversity, equity and inclusion, a crusade marked by economic punishments against college campuses and companies that highlight race.
The marchers also criticized the White House for taking over the District of Columbia police department, and threatening similar actions against major urban hubs, including New York City.
“Donald Trump’s attacks on DEI were only the prelude, as he is now dangling threats to take over American cities led by Black mayors,” said Sharpton, founder and president of the National Action Network. “If we leave him unchecked on DEI, if we do not get out and march, if we do not speak up, he will completely erase the freedoms our parents and our grandparents fought, bled and died for.”
Stops along the march included the Lower Manhattan African Burial Ground — the largest known resting place of enslaved and freed Africans — and 26 Federal Plaza, where ICE agents have rampantly arrested migrants during appearances before immigration courts.
Invited speakers included mayoral candidates Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Mayor Adams, but only Mamdani appeared at the podium at the end of the march to speak to the crowd.
