On August 28, 1963, as a 14-year-old child, I bear in mind watching the TV broadcast of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ushering within the largest civil rights gathering of our time — the March on Washington. Dr. King was launched because the “ethical chief of our nation” and delivered a message which empowered the 250,000 individuals in attendance and numerous others listening across the nation.
Tv was not all the time dwell as we all know it in the present day, and so, for many of us Dr. King’s immortal “I Have a Dream” speech was remembered by way of a delayed night broadcast with grainy black-and-white footage and commentators trying to explain one thing that the nation had not seen as much as that time by way of the sheer variety of individuals concerned. His phrases introduced my mom to tears, and I sat in our tiny rowhouse with my three sisters all immobile from the magnificent energy of his phrases.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day was designed in order to deliberately encourage all Individuals to volunteer and provides again to their communities.
I additionally recall the numbness I felt on the night of April 4, 1968, when Dr. King — who led with non-violence — was taken from us in such a merciless method by the one bullet of a lone murderer. After I first heard the phrases that night that “Dr. King is useless,” like so many others my coronary heart raced after which sank instantly.
As I mirror again on the lifetime of Dr. King, I’m reminded of a person who was unawed by opinion, unseduced by flattery, and undismayed by catastrophe. He confronted life with the braveness of his convictions, after which confronted dying with the braveness of his religion.
In 1980, as a younger member of the Baltimore Metropolis Council, I petitioned the Council to affix with different native governments across the nation to push for the institution of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday as a authorized vacation. For years, each January fifteenth, I drove right down to Washington, D.C. to affix recording artists and civil rights leaders Gil Scott-Heron, The Final Poets, Stevie Surprise, Diana Ross, Jesse Jackson, Congressman John Conyers, and 1000’s of others who rallied on the steps of the Capitol round this subject. Later, I might repeatedly draft and introduce resolutions that might search to certify Dr. King’s birthday as a authorized vacation in Baltimore.
The federal laws to acknowledge Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first launched by Democratic Michigan Congressman John Conyers, simply days faraway from the assassination of Dr. King. It could take 15 years of perseverance, tenacity, and resolve by civil rights activists for the vacation to be acknowledged and signed into federal legislation by President Ronald Reagan in 1983, after which an extra 17 years for it to be acknowledged in all 50 states throughout the nation.
Fittingly, Martin Luther King Jr. Day was designed in order to deliberately encourage all Individuals to volunteer and provides again to their communities. In actual fact, it’s the solely federal vacation categorized as a Nationwide Day of Service. I stay up for honoring his reminiscence by persevering with this custom of service this yr on January 20.
I will likely be spending this yr’s day of service serving meals and volunteering at Baltimore’s Our Day by day Bread Employment Heart and visiting with veterans of varied wants on the Maryland Heart for Veterans Training and Coaching (MCVET). Then, I’ll be a part of a whole lot of neighborhood residents to march in and have a good time on the Metropolis’s annual MLK Day parade. Educating by instance is how all of us — irrespective of who we’re — can discover a technique to give again. As such, I will likely be doing that once more this yr and won’t be in attendance on the inauguration ceremony of President-elect Donald Trump as they each fall on the identical day.
I might be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that I perceive the selections of others who plan to attend the inauguration ceremony regardless of it coinciding with MLK Day. Prior to now, I’ve attended the inaugurations of each Democratic and Republican presidents. For me, attendance on the ceremony has all the time been a selection made out of respect for the workplace, irrespective of which celebration was within the White Home.
However on this occasion, I can not deny all the work and energy that I and so many others put in to creating this MLK Day a vacation. I really feel personally pushed in respect to the life and legacy of Dr. King to have a good time it how I all the time have — by way of acts of service. I take pleasure in defending this honorable and solemn day.
And in regard to my absence at President-elect Trump’s inauguration, I don’t assume they’ll miss me.
