Ayanna Pressley: MLK ‘Will Be Weaponized’ for ‘Legislated White Supremacy’

In a speech commemorating Martin Luther King Jr. on Saturday, Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), a member of the “Squad,” accused her political opponents of weaponizing MLK’s “I Have a Dream” to continue “white supremacy.”

Pressley made the remarks during a virtual event hosted by Boston University and the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. The event focused on celebrating MLK’s birthday and remembering his legacy.

Shortly into her speech, Pressley leveled attacks at her GOP colleagues, accusing them of using MLK’s speech to further a white supremacist agenda. “Throughout this weekend of national observance and in floor speeches from many of my colleagues across the aisle, excerpts from “I Have A Dream” will be weaponized, perverted to justify legislated white supremacy,” she said.

She went on to argue that the progress made by activists like MLK haven’t been “fully realized” because of white moderates and white supremacists.

“And the legislative strides we’ve made, thanks to Dr. King and many more, remain daily under attack. A consequential reality and devastating reminder that gains are not guarantees,” she commented. “Gains are not guarantees when inertia, inaction and insurrection thrive. Gains are not guarantees when the white moderate is complicit and white supremacy emboldened.”

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Pressley also directed her MLK speech toward advocating for the Democrats’ voting rights legislation, claiming the filibuster is preserving Jim Crow.

“Jim Crow is not behind us when the Senate filibuster is preserved,” she said. “Jim Crow is not behind us when states laws have been introduced to disenfranchise our voices, to disenfranchise our votes and to silence our voices. Jim Crow is not by behind us and we are still in the Civil Rights Movement when Black home ownership is the lowest it’s been in decades.”

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