Activists March 'For Jobs and Justice'

Aligning themselves with the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, members of a handful of different activist groups, including those identifying with the Occupy movement, stopped in Howard County over the weekend on their way from Baltimore to Washington, D.C.

“We greeted them ecstatically,” said Mary Hill who is affiliated with Howard County MoveOn, a local chapter of the nonprofit organization that supports civic action. 

The marchers started their “March for Jobs and Justice” Saturday at Union Baptist Church in Baltimore, then headed to Read's Drug Store, the site of the famous 1955 sit-in in which African-Americans demanded successfully to be served at the lunch counter.

Dr. Helena Hicks, one of the organizers of that sit-in, joined the marchers in Baltimore this weekend. 

Marchers ranged in age from 12 to 71, according to a press release.

“Our march has national significance for the unemployed everywhere," said Sharon Black, spokesperson for Occupy 4 Jobs Network, in the release. "We will be representing people from every city, county and state...when we march to demand a jobs program." The destination was Washington, D.C., where the group arrived Monday.

In all, about 30 people came to US 1 and MD 175 in Jessup on Saturday to show support for those marching, though the cold weather kept some people from staying for long, Hill said.

“We just wanted to give them a welcome and sendoff as they came to Howard County,” she explained. 

The marchers were greeted with honking horns, cheers and plenty of donations at a Burger King restaurant in Jessup, Hill said, and some marchers stayed the night at the La Quinta Inn on Washington Boulevard near MD 175 before heading to Washington.

“Howard County was awesome with the donations,” Hill said, so awesome that she didn’t have room for her son’s booster seat and he had to travel to the hotel with someone else—her car was filled with water, fruit and other food.

Said Hill: “It just really felt good that so many people were supporting these marchers.”