Faith, immigrant and labor leaders across Michigan rallied Monday with celebrations of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which fell this year on the same day that President Donald Trump was inaugurated. Some criticized Trump, contrasting his message with the vision of the late civil rights leader.
They gathered in churches, community centers and a plaza to talk about the future of democracy at a time of transition, expressing concerns about how the Trump administration may affect their lives. The Detroit NAACP held an MLK Day event at Denise Wellons-Glover Welcome Center at the northwest campus of Wayne County Community College that included a viewing of Trump’s inauguration ceremony and conversations on moving King’s dream forward. The message in Detroit was one of resistance and urging people to fight in coming years. Trump won Michigan, but received only eight percent of the vote in Detroit.
“Mis-Using the Dream To Create a Nightmare,” was the title of the NAACP event.
“Donald Trump is going to turn back the clock” on labor issues, UAW Region 1A Director Laura Dickerson said at the livestreamed Detroit NAACP event. “We have to make sure we’re ready for the fight. Is everybody ready for the fight?” Dickerson voiced concern about “racist rhetoric,” saying “our country has been bought by Elon Musk.”
A Detroit pastor who spoke at Trump’s inauguration and supported his candidacy, Lorenzo Sewell, offered a differing vision, quoting from King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech. During his inaugural address, Trump said: “To the Black and Hispanic communities, I want to thank you for the tremendous outpouring of love and trust that you have shown me with your vote. We set records and I will not forget it. I’ve heard your voices in the campaign, and I look forward to working with you in the years to come.”
Another Michigan cleric who had been listed previously on a program to speak, Imam Husham Al-Husainy, did not deliver a benediction at Trump’s inauguration and was not seen. A new program posted Monday on X by reporters and U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, did not list Al-Husainy, who could not be reached for comment Monday.
The NAACP event in Detroit featured Black, Latino, Arab American and Muslim leaders. Imam Mohammad Ali Elahi, the religious leaders of the Islamic House of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights, delivered an opening prayer, asking God: “Please make us ambassadors of peace, love and justice.”
A separate MLK Day event was held Monday by Michigan United, a liberal advocacy group, at Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church, titled “Will Democracy Live Again? MLK Day Event Confronts America’s Crossroads.”
Christian, Jewish and community leaders spoke in the church, noting the constitutional rights of Americans.
John Duckworth, second vice president of The Council of Baptist Pastors of Detroit and Vicinity, spoke at the livestreamed event about the importance of the right to assembly.
“If you’re entering a state of dictatorship, the last thing a dictator wants is our position,” Duckworth told the crowd assembled in the Detroit church. “So we must remember the importance of gathering together … whether it be a protest, a planned meeting, labor organizing, union organizing. … The only way we will ever be defeated is if we fail to assemble together, to understand that I need you, and you need me. We are not a bunch of independents; we are a bunch of interdependents.”
Monica Lewis-Patrick, a longtime activist with We The People Detroit, addressed the issue of fear, saying that some groups are now trying to quiet down and accommodate themselves to powerful leaders instead of standing up to them.
“You need to be courageous enough to confront authority,” Lewis-Patrick said. “I need you to have some courage. … Some of you are going to get scared in the next couple of years. Some of you all are already scared now.”
Patrick, who often speaks on water access issues in Detroit, also criticized Democratic leaders in her remarks, saying they sometimes take for granted community support.
Immigrant rights was also an issue raised at some events in Michigan, as Trump announced several new programs to block some immigrants at the southern border, end refugee programs and deport millions of people.
Cosecha Michigan held a protest as snow fell at Rosa Parks Circle in Grand Rapids, holding up banners that read “No Deportations” and “Immigrants are not criminals.”
They walked around Grand Rapids to the beat of a drum, chanting: “The people united will never be defeated,” a livestream showed.
Activist groups had planned a similar protest for Monday afternoon outside federal immigration offices in downtown Detroit, but it was canceled because of the cold weather, said the Huntington Woods Peace Group.
Elder Leslie Matthews, of Triumphant Life Christian Church in Highland Park, who helped organize the event at Pleasant Grove Missionary Baptist Church, said “it became quite evident that we are going to have to fight” in coming years. She expressed concern about Project 2025 and attacks against the Department of Education that were sometimes made by Trump during the campaign.
Matthews said if Harris won, they were planning more of a celebratory MLK Day event, but now, it’s more of a “day of mourning.”
Detroit Free Press photographer Ryan Garza contributed to this report.
Contact Niraj Warikoo:[email protected] or X @nwarikoo
