Reclaim MLK - Third World for Black Power Lockdown at Federal Building in Oakland, 1/16/15: photos

[Huge banner held aloft by a helium balloon reads: Black Power Matters - #3rdWorld4BlackPower.]



U.S. marshals guarding the the building originally threatened to arrest those locking down the main entrances, but protesters negotiated to be able to remain in place for four hours and twenty-eight minutes since there were side doors open whereby those who needed access to the complex could come and go.

Symbolically, the four hours honor the memory of every twenty-eight hours a Black person is killed by police, security or vigilantes in this country.

A number of the organizers of the Federal building action were involved with the BART Friday action that shut down three downtown San Francisco stations.

The idea behind reclaiming MLK's legacy is to rescue it from the sanitized version whereby King has been painted by liberals for decades as a make-nice or passive historical figure rather than the defiant radical fighting for justice that he actually was in his time. MLK was very much controversial and often despised, not at all adored by the majority of whites in America, at the time of his assassination.

APTP actions were organized using a spokescouncil/affinity group model, allowing for a diversity of actions in a wide variety of locations. In all, hundreds of activists organized over two dozen actions which brought out a diverse group of thousands committed to racial and economic equality in the Bay Area and across the United States.




Audacious Black Lives Matter Shutdown of Oakland Police Headquarters, 12/15/14: photos
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2014/12/29/18766146.php


For more more info and coverage of APTP "Reclaiming Martin Luther King Jr's Legacy" actions, see: