BALTIMORE (4/4/03) - 120 rallied outside of the State Office Building at Howard Street and Martin Luther King Boulevard to protest the Bush administration's war on Iraq and to commemorate the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. who was assassinated on April 4, 1968. King was killed while speaking in support of public workers on strike in Memphis, Tennessee. The previous year on April 4, King had delivered the speech "Beyond Vietnam" in opposition to the U.S. war on Vietnam at Riverside Church in New York City.

The rally was organized by People of Color United for Peace & Justice (PCUPJ), American Friends Service Committee (AFSC)-Baltimore Urban Peace Movement, and Unity for Action. Tina Wheeler, speaking for PCUPJ and the Maryland Communist Party, said people were rallying "to honor Martin Luther King because he opposed the Vietnam War and for exposing the truth." She pointed out that tax-payers' money going into the war should rather be used to fund education, health care, and the needs of veterans. Wheeler, like others present, had attended the funeral of Baltimore marine Kendall Waters-Bey earlier in the day.

Other speakers included Bill Goodin of Unity in Action, Renee Williams of the All Peoples Congress, and Louis Eagle Warrior a Native American musician who played on a traditional flute. Anti-war poetry was read by community activist Eric Easton and Kenneth Morrison, a young man who's lines included:

I did not choose this battle
I was born into this war
I grab my pen and go into battle
I am a poet at war.

Motorists in rush hour traffic often honked in support of the protesters. Activists passed out informational leaflets to drivers and passers-by.

For the text of Martin Luther King's speech "Beyond Vietnam":
www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/MLKapr67.html .