P.O.P. celebrates anniversary of Justice Mondays protests

NEWARK, NJ — Chairman Larry Hamm and the members of the People’s Organization for Progress are coming up on a milestone, in terms of the weekly Justice Mondays protests in front of the Peter Rodino Federal Building on Broad Street in downtown Newark, and it will be during the national observance of Black History Month in February.

“Next Monday (Feb. 6) will be the actual one-year anniversary,” said Hamm on Tuesday, Jan. 31. “We started this on Feb. 1, 2016, under Paul Fishman. I don’t even know if he’s still there.”

Fishman was appointed to his New Jersey post by former President Barack Obama. And now that Donald Trump has been sworn in as the 45th president of the United States and has nominated U.S. Sen. Jeff Session as his choice for U.S. Attorney General, Hamm said he’s sure Fishman has either resigned, stepped down or is waiting to be replaced by a more conservative Republican appointee, once Sessions get confirmed by the House of Representatives and the Senate.

“Of course we oppose the nomination of Jeff Sessions, whose record is so flawed with racism that he couldn’t get confirmed as a federal judge in his home state years ago,” said Hamm. “Coretta Scott King actually wrote a protest letter against Sessions. And we’ll be discussing that and a whole lot more on Justice Sunday, Feb. 12, at St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church on Sanford Street in East Orange at 10 a.m.”

Now, more than ever, Hamm said, the country needs Justice Mondays and People’s Organization for Progress plans to continue giving the people what they want and need.

“We do it because we want justice for these people that have been killed by the police,” said Hamm. “That’s the real reason why we do it. It takes stamina, but that determination is fueled by the mothers. It wasn’t just P.O.P.; it was the families of these victims themselves. The mother and stepfather of Jerome Reid have been out there every week. When the families of these victims are with you, it strengthens your resolve to see them turning their anger, grief and frustration into positive action.”

  Larry Hamm, People’s Organization for Progress