Mother Jones
It started slowly. A few people began banging spoons against the metal pillars. More joined in, hitting them against benches. The people sitting down started too, slamming their spoons against the concrete floor. Soon, the deafening clamor of hundreds of synchronized spoons was sounding across the Montgomery BART station in downtown San Francisco. They were tapping a message: The movement is still alive.
Sixty years after Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech about the Montgomery bus boycott—the speech that helped set off the Civil Rights Movement—hundreds of activists gathered at the station early Friday morning to protest in his spirit. It was the first of many demonstrations scheduled around the country this weekend—an attempt to “reclaim King’s Legacy.” People filled the light-rail platforms, shutting down two stations that service the city’s downtown financial district. “BART FRIDAY: NO BUSINESS AS USUAL” proclaimed the all caps header on the event’s Facebook page.
The protesters’ demands were specific, but their point was broader. “Part of what we are trying to do over the next 96 hours is remind people that Martin Luther King believed in direct action. He was not the pacified image they teach in classrooms,” said one organizer, barely audible over the spoons.
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“Black Lives Matter” Aspires to Reclaim the Legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.
