Ayanna Pressley channels MLK Jr.’s legacy to call for resistance to Trump

The celebrations of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and President Donald Trump’s second inaugural provided a stark contrast on Monday with several Massachusetts politicians pointedly skipping the Washington, D.C., event to stay close to home.

Representative Ayanna Pressley chose to honor King at local Boston events, where she drew a bright line between her values and that of the newly sworn-in president.

At a breakfast to honor King, Pressley called the coincidence of the two events “a painful contradiction.” Trump, she said, was “antithetical to everything that Martin strategized, organized, boycotted, marched, prayed and sacrificed his life for.”

Later in the day, Pressley hosted an event in Roxbury billed as “a day of beloved community.” Staff members from Planned Parenthood and MIRA, an immigrant rights advocacy group, set up tables to share resources with the goal of preparing people to mitigate the anticipated impact of Trump’s policies.

“Dr. King did tell us that organizing is our most powerful weapon,” Pressley told attendees. “And as we face the challenges of another Trump presidency, we will need radical love and your cooperative spirit now more than ever.”

While Pressley is hoping attendees will leave with ideas for action, she said she and many community members were bracing for the worst.

“I’ve heard … immigrant neighbors and my constituents developing plans, telling their children, ‘If you come home and I’m not here, this is what you should do. This is where you should go,’” Pressley said.

Carrie Richgels of Planned Parenthood Massachusetts told the crowd an abortion legal hotline had been set up to help patients understand their rights and said her organization had increased the number of patient navigators and funds to help patients overcome any hurdles to get services.

“As much as the uncertainty of the next four years can feel scary, we’re grounding ourselves in being as prepared as possible. We’re not just going to wait and see what’s going to happen at the national level,” Richgels said.

Maroni Minter, MIRA’s political director, said his organization was conducting “know your rights training” for individuals and training business owners on how to protect their immigrant workers.

The organization plans to launch a campaign to push for a state bill to “disentangle” the interaction of law enforcement and ICE , and another to provide more funding for legal services to protect immigrants. Minter noted that immigrants who have the help of lawyers were “10 times more likely to succeed in their cases” than those without legal aid.

Roubbins LaMothe from Allston said he came to stay informed so he could help engage with community members who feel unheard or “indifferent.”

“You can’t be indifferent with Donald Trump,” said LaMothe, “You kind of have to choose one way or another.”

Fatima Ali-Salaam, a software engineer from Mattapan, came to get information about how to support efforts to fight Trump’s policies.

“You have to encourage people to stand up always,” said Ali-Salaam. “Democracy is living. It can never be untended.”

While Pressley was the first in the Massachusetts congressional delegation to announce that she’d be skipping the inauguration, Senator Edward Markey and Representative Bill Keating also opted out.

Keating said his decision was spurred by Trump’s promise to pardon those convicted of crimes related to the riots of January 6, 2021. But Keating said he remained undeterred to “get things done.”

“I’ll be open, as I think most people will be, to try and take every opportunity to move forward. I think you can work in that environment and still get the job done. As long as you have people working with you,” Keating said.

At Boston’s breakfast event for King, Markey called Trump’s inauguration invitation to three of the country’s richest white men — Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg — “absolutely a symbol of where we are today in our country” and urged people to confront inequality and oppression.

“While every family in America … sits around their kitchen table trying to figure out how to pay the monthly bills, those three white men will be up there sitting next to Donald Trump. This is not a coincidence. This is a call to action,” Markey said.

While Pressley said she’d been busy at community events all day, she planned to listen to Trump’s inauguration speech, and paraphrased the words of Martin Luther King Jr.

“It’s important that we study the words of our oppressor in order to inform our strategy,” she said.

Liz Neisloss is a reporter for GBH News.