Reverend who marched with MLK hopes for change: 'We're just tired of the struggle'

Rev. Donna Beasley is still fighting for justice, decades after she marched through the streets of Louisville, Kentucky, with Martin Luther King, Jr.

Beasley joined the protesters who came out in force Wednesday to condemn racism and police brutality. She told MSNBC's Cal Perry that "black people have been fighting this fight for years, hundreds of years, and it's a shame that in 1962 to 2020, I'm still seeing the same thing, we're still having to fight to be treated like we're normal, regular human beings."

One thing has changed, and that's the diversity in the crowd. "I'm glad to see all the whites who are out here protesting with us as we march down the street," Beasley said. "I'm glad to see that. That's the way it should have been a long time ago, walking hand in hand, arm in arm. That's what Martin Luther King preached about and wanted, but unfortunately his dream has not been totally realized."

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After so many years of protesting and demanding change, "we're just tired of the struggle," Beasley said. "We're tired of the fight. We're tired of being treated like we're subservient, that we're less than, like we're dirt under people's feet." She suggested young protesters study tactics that civil rights activists used in the 1960s, like sit-ins, and start talking with city and state leaders. "But talk is cheap," she added. "We can talk all day long, but if we get up and you go your way and I go my way and nothing's ever done, then that's just a wasted conversation."

Beasley marched with King in 1962. He would often come to Louisville because his brother, Rev. A.D. Williams King, was a religious and civil rights leader in the city, and together they would march and attend rallies. Catherine Garcia