On King Day, a message of unity to Memphis from families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Jacob Blake

Jacob Blake Sr. came to Memphis for the first time when he was young, shortly after Martin Luther King Jr., a civil rights activist like his father, was killed at the Lorraine Motel.

He was back on Monday for his first visit since his son, Jacob Blake Jr. was shot by police and left paralyzed from the waist down.

Joined by family members of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, Blake brought a message of unity to Memphis on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It's ironic, he said, that he's taking the next steps in the fight for justice he learned from his own father, the Rev. Jacob S. Blake.

"This all fell on all of us," Blake said of himself and Floyd and Taylor's family members. "No one set out to be in this fraternity, or sorority."

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Organized by entertainment executive Michael Dockery and Charles Sims, a former military service member, the group came to Memphis for the weekend to encourage unity over gun violence. After a visit to the National Civil Rights Museum, the group convened downtown for a lunch attended by Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, Commissioners Willie Brooks and Reginald Milton, State Rep. Joe Towns and Steve Mulroy, a candidate for Shelby County District Attorney.

"All of these assembled individuals, we all understand you can have safety, and you can have justice," Harris told the room. "We all understand you can have security, and you can have humanity. We all understand that you can have policing, and you can emphasize community. In fact, you can't have any of these things unless you have all of these things."

Blake chimed in: "All of them, right."

This was because, Harris said, King "realized that you can have both and" racial and economic justice, racial harmony and Black power.

"We should demand it all," Harris said.

Bianca Austin is the aunt of Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot by officers attempting to serve a no-knock search warrant in Louisville, Kentucky. Austin wasn't looking to be a civil rights activist, but she hopes by speaking up she can help other people.

"I know how to advocate for my family," she said.

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From her perspective, a "community requires unity," from the top officials to the residents. Rather than defund, her message is to dismantle, so that people are put ahead of policy. She and Blake agreed that Memphis' heartbeat is its working class.

"It comes from the heart. It comes from truth. It comes from pain," Austin said of her advocacy. "If we can impact the rest of the communities across the United States to do the same, just think if we all come together, the power we possess."

For Paris Stevens, a first cousin of George Floyd, the message of unity is also meant to encourage people to not just stand up for themselves, but to stand up for others, something she's learned to do since her cousin was killed by police.

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She was joined Monday by Floyd's aunts Angela Harrelson and Mahalia Jones.

Sims, one of the organizers, said the event was unique, a way to reckon with histories, including his own, describing a three-times great-grandfather, Gen. James Z. George, also a three-term U.S. Senator of Mississippi, an "architect of Jim Crow laws."

Blake's father marched for Black voting rights, he explained, from Selma to Montgomery where King delivered his famous "How long, Not long" speech, events that led to the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

At the National Civil Rights Museum Monday, voting was at the forefront of the free entrance day, as was information on the COVID-19 vaccination.

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"Still today, as we celebrate our campaign, Double V, Voting and Vaccine, there are still discriminatory practices that begin to reappear within our nation's Constitution," said Ryan Jones, who was the DJ for the virtual portion of the museum's events. "It's an American eternal demand to have the right to vote. You don't vote, you don't count."

Laura Testino covers education and children's issues for the Commercial Appeal. Reach her at laura.testino@commercialappeal.com or 901-512-3763. Find her on Twitter: @LDTestino

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: MLK Day: Families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Jacob Blake bring unity message to Memphis