By Jason Ponterotto , New York Amsterdam News
Instead of his annual March on Washington commemoration rally in D.C., the Rev. Al Sharpton and the National Action Network (NAN) led a “March on Wall Street” in lower Manhattan on August 4 to hold corporations accountable for bending the knee to the Trump administration’s anti-diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) agenda.
On the 62nd anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, Sharpton and NAN, along with several other civil rights and labor leaders, led hundreds of participants from Foley Square near the African Burial Ground to the end point of Whitehall Street between Bridge and Pearl Streets. Afterward, they held a rally in which several civil rights activists, elected officials, ministers and labor leaders spoke.
“Why do we come to Wall Street? Since you have benefited from Trump, we’ve come to tell you your benefit days are numbered. We are not going back,” Sharpton said during the rally.
“They stood us up right in this area and sold us like a bar of soap,” Sharpton said about the history of Wall Street being the second-largest port for slave trading in the 1700s. “But we come back — the children of our ancestors. We come back ready to vote, ready to spend our dollars. We are not slaves anymore. We are not going back on the slave market. Donald Trump, get ready for the fight [of] your life.”
The march began not far from 26 Federal Plaza, the field office for the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (ICE), as speakers called out Trump’s civil and human rights violations.
Among the supporters marching were regular NAN members, ministers and community organizers from across the country, waving signs and flags, and chanting “No justice, No peace!” A busload of Memphis NAN members also attended the march.
Democratic NYC mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani also participated in the march and was the only candidate to attend. Sharpton announced he had invited both Mayor Eric Adams and former Governor Andrew Cuomo.
“I don’t endorse, but I do take attendance,” Sharpton said before welcoming Mamdani to the stage.
“I tell you that every day, I will wake up with Dr. King’s dream at the forefront of my mind, a dream where we make this city — the most expensive in the United States of America — affordable for each and every person across this city,” Mamdani said in his remarks.
“To Donald Trump, we say this to you: We will continue to fight for that which our forefathers have fought for, because what we fight for is no less than what we deserve, and we will not let you take that dignity from us,” he continued.
Other speakers included Martin Luther King III and his wife, Andrea Waters King; Michael Eric Dyson, Benjamin Crump, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, Melanie Campbell and Maya Wiley.
Baraka, who was arrested in May for allegedly trespassing at a detention center in Newark while protesting against ICE, called on all mayors to fight back against Trump.
“We are here because our ancestors demand that we be here, because the times demand that we be here, because every mayor in every city in America should be rising up right now as Donald Trump tries to send the National Guard into our communities. We are here as they create the biggest transference of wealth this country has ever seen,” Baraka said.
The march comes after Target Corp. reported severe declines in sales since a boycott was announced earlier this year by several organizers, including Sharpton and the Rev. Jamal Bryant, in a response to its dropping DEI initiatives. Recently, the corporation’s CEO Brian Cornell resigned as a result. NAN has also been involved in protesting in front of hedge fund manager and anti-DEI figure Bill Ackman’s offices in Midtown for 86 consecutive weeks.
Buses traveled from 11 states to bring NAN chapters to the event.
Sheryl Huff, 59, president of the Middle Tennessee chapter of NAN, brought up to 72 supporters with her on a bus, along with the Memphis chapter.
“We can’t keep supporting and bringing our dollars to you, and you slamming the doors and telling us that we’re not worth it,” Huff said about anti-DEI actions from companies. Some of the initiatives they are working on include educating community members about the issues, working on improving their credit, getting their records expunged, and registering them to vote.
Martese Chism, secretary of NAN’s West Tennessee Chapter, said she was disappointed that more Democratic leaders did not show up for the march. “I boarded the bus to New York with hope in my heart and history on my mind. I thought of the 1963 March on Washington for Economic Justice — a moment when the people showed up in force to demand dignity, opportunity and equality,” Chism said. “I expected something similar at the March on Wall Street. But when we arrived, the crowd was smaller than I had imagined. And that silence spoke volumes.”
Still, she said she was proud of “our small but mighty delegation from Memphis, Tennessee.”
“We came to show our youth that courage doesn’t require a crowd. That standing up matters, even when you’re standing alone. … We wanted Wall Street to hear us. To see us. To know that we are here, and we are not backing down,” Chism added.
James Viafara, 20, president of the Medgar Evers College NAACP Chapter, came as part of the New York State Conference Youth & College division.
“I feel, as a young person today, the urgency and the crisis that we witness gives us a different motive. It gives us a different purpose, and it affirms our mission,” Viafara said.
Labor was represented with leaders from the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees; National Education Association; American Federation of Teachers; and others.
“Economic justice is civil rights” was the mantra repeated by Crump several times.
The march followed a busy weekend for Sharpton: He spoke at the memorial service for Harlem giant Lloyd Williams on Saturday and then delivered a speech during the chapel ceremony at Howard University responding to the escalation of the National Guard in DC, namely, against Black residents after the Guard’s deployment by Trump.
“If you don’t want diversity and economic inclusion in our policy, then you don’t need diversity in our consumer dollars. We will shop with who does business with us. We will walk with who walks with us,” Sharpton said.
He aimed further comments at Trump: “We’re gonna meet you at every turn. We’re gonna meet you at every ballot box. We are all coming together because we are not going to let you end this democracy and go to an autocracy.”
