Occupy, civil rights groups join at Greensboro event
RALEIGH (AP) — Members of a traveling Occupy group are meeting with civil rights leaders in Greensboro in an unusual confluence of interests of the mostly white anti-Wall Street movement and blacks.
The so-called Walkupy marched Thursday in Greensboro from a campus statue on North Carolina A&T State University to the International Civil Rights Museum, where the museum's co-founders planned to meet them for a news conference about plans for a mass action in the spring.
The February One statue honors the four young A&T students who led the lunch-counter sit-in at Woolworth's that began Feb. 1, 1960, and led to the desegregation of the counter and to other non-violent protests across the South.
The Occupy Wall Street movement has been noted for its lack of minority support, although some cities, such as Detroit, have a lot of minority support. Others, such as Washington, have far less.
"I'm not sure where the disconnect might have started from the beginning, but better late than never," said museum co-founder Melvin "Skip" Alston. "Their cause is addressing the things that African-Americans are concerned with — more than just African-Americans, 99 percent of Americans as a whole."
The Rev. Jesse Jackson addressed the Occupy group in Atlanta, for example, while singer Kanye West visited protesters in New York's Zucotti Park. Hip hop artists also have shown up at Occupy Oakland protests in California.
But minorities haven't embraced the movement as much as some whites, even though the unemployment among blacks was 15.5 percent in November, more than twice that of whites — 7.6 percent. And the Pew Research Center found that from 2005 to 2009, inflation-adjusted median wealth fell by 66 percent among Hispanic households and 53 percent among black households, compared with just 16 percent among white households.
Museum co-founder Earl Jones said the Occupy protests have touched a populist nerve and will resonate in the black community. "The issue of the 20th century was race," Jones said. "The issue of the 21st century is going to be class. And you're beginning to see that."
Blacks and the Occupy protesters share common goals, Alston said.
"You can ask that of a lot of people: Where were they?" he said. "They're here now and we should appreciate that and build on it. We don't have the time and luxury to point fingers now at people trying to help our causes."
Nathan Stueve, who's marching with Walkupy, said he believes there's some validity to criticism about the lack of minority support for the Occupy movement. The march into Greensboro isn't focused on civil rights but on a national call for action for all Americans, he said.
"We're seeking to unite all Americans on issues of economic inequality," Stueve said. "African-American communities have borne the brunt much harder and much longer. This is an opportunity for all Americans to recognize we have a common cause and we're suffering from common injustices and can change things for the better."
The walk itself, however, draws on the protests of civil rights actions, he said. "This is an echo of what happened in the civil rights movement as far as Selma," said Stueve, 32, of Springfield, Mo. "The idea of holding it at Greensboro is create an echo of the past and form of link of continuity into the future."
The Occupy Wall Street protests began with general complaints include income inequality and the role that banks and big businesses played in the global financial crisis. Alston said he likes that the Occupy movement seems to be trying to define its message and focus on inequalities in the economic system but says its supporters have more work to do if they hope to emulate the successes of the civil rights movement.
"Now you've got the country's attention," he said. "What do you want us to do?"
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