Civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton led thousands from across the country Thursday for “March on Wall Street” in protest of the Trump administration’s withdrawal from Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs — three values that the president and his followers have eschewed.
The massive Lower Manhattan march, coinciding with the 62nd anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous March on Washington in 1963, kicked off from Foley Square on the 62nd anniversary of the March on Washington. Sharpton stood with Martin Luther King III, Ben Crump, Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, and others. Mayor Eric Adams and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo did not appear.
With thousands standing behind them, the legion of demonstrators took off, striding through the streets. They took their bodies and voices to Wall Street, where they said many businesses were aligning themselves with Trump’s anti-diversity and inclusion policies.
“Keep the dream alive!” the sea of humanity chanted in unison as they marched through the roadway to Whitehall Street. Here, Sharpton pledged to fight Trump tooth-and-nail to ensure DEI efforts remain intact.
“We are not going back to the slave market, Donald Trump, Get ready for the fight of your life!” Sharpton said. “Somebody said: ‘You can’t fight Trump. He got too much power. He has the majority of the Supreme Court. He has the majority of the US Senate. He has a majority of the House of Representatives.’ Yeah, but there’s something he doesn’t have. You don’t realize that our grandparents and our parents fought when they didn’t have a right to vote.”
Speakers stated that Black Americans are already disproportionally suffer from financial insecurity, and with DEI programs being eliminated, inequality will only grow.
“What good is it to have the right to sit at a lunch counter if you can’t afford to buy a hamburger?” Mamdani asked. “I stand before you as a man looking to be the next mayor of this city, and I tell you that every day I will wake up with Dr. King’s dream at the forefront of my mind.”
Many of the march and rally attendees arrived on buses from states all across the country and called upon the corporate world to respond to Trump’s anti-DEI rhetoric. Martin Luther King III was among those who underscored the importance of equality.
“We must create the climate where people truly can raise themselves by their own bootstraps, but you can’t say to a bootless person, ‘Raise up by your own bootstraps.’ We must create that climate, that economic climate where housing is affordable, that climate where health care is available for all,” King III said. “That is part of what we got to do in this quest, because the ship appears to be sinking and we cannot allow that. In fact, I’m gonna say we will not allow that to happen.”
