Americans honored Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday with a traditional day of service as well as a new wave of economic injustice protests by Occupy Wall Street.
On the first King holiday since the now-global Occupy movement launched in New York City in September, the reignited debate over inequality drew hundreds of protestors to march in wintry temperatures in Manhattan, stopping at a Bank of America branch to shout, "The banks got bailed out, we got sold out."
At least two protesters were loaded into a police van at the march, held "because Dr. King dedicated the last months of his life to planning a campaign for the right of all to a decent-paying job," leaders said in a statement.
King was organizing a Poor People's Campaign, the next phase in the civil rights movement, before he was murdered in 1968.
"I came here on the one hand to honor (King's) birthday, but also for the things that he stood for," said Jim Glaser, a retired teacher from suburban Nyack, New York, at the march.
"We have to have a government that's responsive to people, ... a government that people can have some influence on," he said.
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At New York's African Burial Grounds, schoolchildren played "We Shall Overcome" on violins before protesters marched to the Federal Reserve in downtown Manhattan.
"What Occupy Wall Street is trying to do is exactly what (King) was trying to -- focus on economic injustice and to inform and educate the American public," said Norman Siegel, former director of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
"I think (King) would be very pleased because Occupy Wall Street is the children of Dr King's dream," Siegel said at the 18th century burial ground, part of the National Park Service.
Story: Obama: 'There is nobody who can't serve, nobody who can't help'Protesters in the Occupy movement complain that billions of dollars in bailouts were given to banks while many Americans still suffer with joblessness and housing foreclosures. They say minorities were disproportionately affected by predatory lending practices.
The movement has influenced the national political conversation, with President Barack Obama echoing some of its themes in calling for a "fair shot" and "fair share" for all.
Community and civil rights leaders urged Americans to honor King's crusade for nonviolence and racial brotherhood by doing volunteer work.
The president, first lady Michelle Obama and their daughter Malia marked the day by helping spruce up the library at a school in a predominantly African-American community in northeast Washington.
"At a time when the country has been going through some difficult economic times, for us to be able to come together as a community, people from all different walks of life, and make sure that we're giving back, that's ultimately what makes us the strongest, most extraordinary country on earth," Obama said.
This year's King holiday came as officials in more than a dozen states implement new laws requiring voters to present photo identification at the polls. Critics say the restriction violates the Voting Rights Act of 1965 ? one of the key accomplishments of the movement King led.
Across the nation, formal events such as prayer services, perfornmances and parades were staged for King's birthday, which became a federal holiday in 1986. Post offices, government buildings and most public schools were closed.
King, a Baptist pastor who advocated for nonviolence, racial brotherhood and equal rights and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, was assassinated in 1968 as he stood outside his motel room in Memphis, where he had gone to support striking sanitation workers.
The convicted assassin, a segregationist and drifter named James Earl Ray, confessed to the killing but later recanted. He died in prison in 1998.
Protesting voter ID laws
Thousands gathering outside South Carolina's capitol Monday heard a message that wouldn't have been out of place during the halcyon days of the civil rights movement a half-century ago: the need to protect all citizens' right to vote.
A similar tone was struck at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where King preached from 1960 until his death. There and in South Carolina, speakers condemned the voter identification laws they said are meant to suppress black voter turnout.
For most of 13 years in South Carolina, the attention at the NAACP's annual rally has been on the Confederate flag that still waves outside the Statehouse. But on Monday, the civil rights group shifted the focus to laws requiring voters to show photo identification before they can cast ballots, which the group and many other critics say is especially discriminatory toward African-Americans and the poor.
South Carolina's new law was rejected last month by the U.S. Justice Department, but Gov. Nikki Haley vowed to fight the federal government in court. At least a half-dozen other states passed similar voter ID laws in 2011.
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"This has been quite a faith-testing year. We have seen the greatest attack on voting rights since segregation," said Benjamin Todd Jealous, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
The shift in tactics was also noted by the keynote speaker, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder. Last month, Holder said the Justice Department was committed to fighting any laws that keep people from the ballot box. He told the crowd he was keenly aware he couldn't have become the nation's first African-American attorney general without the blood shed by King and other civil rights pioneers.
"The right to vote is not only the cornerstone of our governance, it is the lifeblood of our democracy. And no force has proved more powerful, or more integral to the success of the great American experiment, than efforts to expand the franchise," Holder said. "Let me be very, very clear ? the arc of American history has bent toward the inclusion, not the exclusion, of more of our fellow citizens in the electoral process. We must ensure that this continues."
Texas' new voter ID law is currently before the Justice Department, which reviews changes in voting laws in nine mostly Southern states because of their history of discriminatory voting practices. Other states that passed such laws in 2011 included Alabama, Kansas, Mississippi, Rhode Island, Tennessee and Wisconsin.
Similar laws already were on the books in Georgia and Indiana, and they were approved by President George W. Bush's Justice Department. Indiana's law, passed in 2005, was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2008.
Critics have likened the laws to the poll taxes and tests used to prevent blacks from voting during the civil rights era. Supporters, many of whom are Republicans, say such laws are needed to prevent fraud.
"I signed a bill that would protect the integrity of our voting," Haley said in a statement welcoming Holder to South Carolina.
At the Atlanta church where King once preached, the Rev. Raphael G. Warnock said some in America disrespect King's legacy by "cutting off those for whom he died and the principles for which he fought."
He called voter ID laws an affront to the memory of the civil rights leader.
"You cannot celebrate Dr. King on Monday, and undermine people's ability to vote on Super Tuesday," Warnock said.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46014402/ns/us_news-life/
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