01/21/08:Local Activist Reflects on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - George Martin

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Today, the nation observes the birthday of civil rights activist, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. WUWM’s Marti Mikkelson spoke with one Milwaukee activist about his brush with Dr. King more than 40 years ago.

George Martin says he’ll never forget his first encounter with Dr. King. It happened during the civil rights march on Washington in 1963.

“I was 16 and I was a junior at Marquette High School. I came home from working at the Boys Club one night and Father Groppi was standing in front of my house. He was our parish priest. There were about four or five people in the station wagon and he said “Hurry up, we’re going to Washington." And, I'm going what? I don't know what's happening. I ended up the next morning waking up on the Potomac River, and joining hundreds of thousands of people. It was amazing, an unbelievable experience. As a 16-year-old, I wandered off from the group and ended up on the scaffolding. I felt like I was brushed or pushed forward. I turned around and this group of men were pushing through the crowd and Dr. King was right there. I ended up being ten feet away from him when he gave his “I have a dream” speech.”

Martin says that moment was his coming of age as an activist in the civil rights movement. He says Dr. King’s activism helped achieve many victories for Milwaukee residents.

“Oh, I remember my grandmother and her new right to vote. That was the most important thing in her life. She lived right here on Center Street. That civil rights movement that fought racism and discrimination and established laws began a lot of other movements: the revolution in our universities, women’s rights, gay and lesbian rights.”

Yet, Martin says Milwaukee continues to face challenges, and some of the themes from the march on Washington still resonate today.

“Back then, we marched for housing, and now we have homelessness. Back then, we marched for jobs, and now we’ve seen the factories leave our communities and go overseas. Back then, we did march for health care. They figured it was settled. We still don’t have health care in this country. We marched for education and now we’re moving backwards in terms of affirmative action.”

In recent years, Martin has switched his focus from civil rights to the peace movement, and ending the war in Iraq. As program director for the group, Peace Action Wisconsin, he organizes and leads war protest rallies in Milwaukee. He says his work with Peace Action Wisconsin isn’t much different from his advocacy for civil rights.

“I think they are the same thing. One of the things that’s affected us through homeland security and the USA Patriot Act has infringed right back on those civil rights that we marched for in 1963. We’ve had 39 of our members detained without charges from flying to Washington to lobby our own congress people. The untold stories of our Arab American brothers and sisters who face profiling and undue harm, so there is a direct reflection in terms of civil rights.”

Martin says he’s happy to see more young people participating in the peace movement, advocating for the homeless and marching against social injustices. He says they will carry on Dr. King’s legacy for Milwaukee.