Leaders of African American community here Saturday voiced their support for the upcoming nation-wide boycott of job, school and shopping by illegal immigrants and their supporters.

Speakers at a press conference in a Los Angeles church likened Great American Boycott, scheduled for Monday on the occasion of the International Labor Day, to the black civil rights movement.

"Rosa Parks steered a new course for history against racism and for workers rights," said John Parker, West Coast coordinator of the International Action Center. "This right here is today's Montgomery bus boycott."

He was referring to the black woman whose refusal to give up her seat to a white passenger in a Montgomery, Alabama bus in 1955 triggered the Martin Luther King-led civil rights movement.

Lasting from midnight Sunday to midnight Monday, the boycott is designed to underscore the economic importance of immigrants at a time when U.S. lawmakers are crafting immigration reform.

Mass marches will punctuate the demonstration across the Southern California and other major populated areas across the United States.

Tony Muhammad, a Nation of Islam minister, said the immigrants rights movement is a global one that concerns oppressed peoples of color, black and brown, and the world would be looking to Los Angeles as a model in the pursuit of "freedom, justice and equality."

Immigrants rights activist Gloria Saucedo urged people not to buy, sell, work or attend school in observance of the boycott, and compared the plight of illegal immigrants to slavery.

Referring to the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States, she said the immigrants today "share the same history of slavery."

Jesse Diaz, a member of the March 25 coalition that helped organize the mass demonstration one month ago and Monday's event, predicted the boycott would mark a historic day in the nation's history.

"That day opened a new chapter in our history," he said. " Hopefully May 1 will open a big chapter in our history."

Hundreds of thousands of people are expected to skip work and school Monday to attend rallies throughout Los Angeles and other U.S. cities demanding that millions of illegal immigrants be granted citizenship or at least a path to citizenship.

Although people opposed to illegal immigration said they do not expect the boycott to change anyone's mind on the controversial issue, there are worries that businesses will be in chaos Monday because of the boycott.

Source: Xinhua