By DaQuan LawrenceAFRO Worldwide WriterDLawrence@afro.com
On Jan. 20, practically 4 many years after its first iteration in 1986, the US will acknowledge and rejoice Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, commemorating the life, legacy and humanitarian efforts of the internationally famend civil rights chief, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Whereas many individuals world wide proceed to struggle towards social, political and financial injustice, some members of youthful and older generations additionally battle to search out that means or relevance within the fashionable human and civil rights actions.
For the King vacation in 2025, the AFRO spoke with three phenomenal younger leaders who comprise of the up to date vanguard for human rights and are at the moment carrying the social justice mantle and persevering with the legacy of the fallen world chief, who – albeit by numerous means – tried to attraction to the conscience of America throughout the twentieth Century and fought for financial and social equality.
Shaquayah McKenzie, Jadayah S. Muhammad and Rashad D. Staton are modern-day “human rights leaders” who embrace the duty, calling and position of serving their communities domestically, nationally and on a world scale.
“When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. got down to affect social change, it derived from an innate religious calling – beset in humanitarianism and Black suffrage,” McKenzie instructed the AFRO.
A primary-generation Jamaican-American from Hartford, Ct, Shaquayah McKenzie is CEO of Hutchinson and McKenzie Enterprises, a social ventures group named in honor of her late father and nice grandfather who helped paved the best way for her household’s “American Dream.” She can also be the CEO of Livity Impression, a inventive change company.
McKenzie is a member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., and a Educate for America alumnus. She was acknowledged as one of many High 50 Ladies Leaders of Maryland by Ladies We Admire, and as a 2023 Ladies’s Historical past Month “Women and Politics” honoree by Black Women Vote and Moet and Chandon.
“I’m impressed by Dr. King’s conscientious management, which motivates me to forge significant alternatives by advocacy, schooling and social justice as an impression strategist,” McKenzie stated. “I perceive my duty in carrying the baton nearer to the traces of equity and justice.”
The primary of her guardian’s kids to attend school, McKenzie made historical past as a scholar chief and obtained a bachelor’s diploma in English and philosophy on the illustrious Morgan State College. She earned her grasp’s diploma in Schooling at Johns Hopkins College. She believes that the work of King is essential and the battle for social justice is ongoing.
“Till the decreed expressions set forth in our nation’s founding paperwork are actualized, there may be a lot work to be finished in addressing corrosive indifferences in the direction of inequity,” McKenzie stated.
All through her profession, McKenzie has labored as a board member and as a serious presents officer for Arts for Studying Maryland. She has served because the director of growth and operations for The Carmelo Anthony Basis, and as profession and school readiness director for the Baltimore Curriculum Challenge. Her resume additionally contains time as a lead instructor on the Baltimore Management College for Younger Ladies.
Whereas Dr. King is revered for his position within the American civil rights motion, his work additionally spanned across the globe as he’s internationally identified for much less heralded efforts towards capitalism and poverty. Many members of the worldwide group contemplate Dr. King a humanitarian with a radical philosophy for resolving racial subordination and sophistication exploitation.
Jadayah S. Muhammad is the chief director of the Worldwide Youth Management Institute (IYLI), and seeks to proceed Dr. King’s revolutionary efforts on the worldwide entrance for working class households, youth and other people of African descent. Muhammad considers herself a “devoted employee” who’s placing her time and power towards the liberation of all folks, significantly African descendants.
“I’m motivated by the need to see freedom, justice and equality for all folks, particularly Black youth, Indigenous folks, and youth world wide. I’m impressed by a imaginative and prescient of a future the place folks can stay as much as their fullest potential as a result of they’ve the issues that they want,” Muhammad defined.
Initially from Brooklyn, NY, Muhammad advocates for enhancing entry to alternatives that improve the lives of youth, folks of African descent, and Indigenous folks worldwide. She is IYLI’s United Nations (UN) Consultant the place she works with worldwide and native organizations on youth and social impression initiatives, in addition to a delegate of the UN Everlasting Discussion board for Individuals of African Descent, the place she co-leads the Youth Subcommittee.
“One factor that folks don’t appear to acknowledge sufficient is the truth that Dr. King was very younger whereas doing the work that he did. There’s no age restrict to inflicting change in our group, so his dedication completely conjures up me,” Muhammad instructed the AFRO.
Muhammad is a proud IYLI alumna, the place she grew to become a 2010-2011 fellow and labored in Tanzania throughout the 2011 Summer season Fellowship Program and served as a bunch chief throughout the 2013 Summer season Fellowship Program in Brazil. She began her undergraduate schooling at age 16 as a Deans Scholar at New York College, the place she majored in anthropology and double-minored in Social Entrepreneurship and Mandarin Chinese language.
As a third-generation Brooklynite, Muhammad was named one among New York Metropolis’s 40 Underneath 40 Rising Stars by New York Nonprofit Media. She serves on a number of worldwide and native boards, together with the New York Metropolis Younger Ladies’s Advisory Council, which addresses coverage points that straight have an effect on younger girls of shade in New York Metropolis.
Muhammad believes there are a number of causes for youth and marginalized populations to proceed combating for human and civil rights, particularly contemplating the present social, political and financial local weather of the US and nations world wide.
“There are a lot of issues we will level to within the U.S. and world wide as examples of why Black folks should proceed to struggle for human and civil rights. Contemplating unfavorable statistics – from charges of imprisonment and charges of schooling discrepancy to well being inequities that we see globally – our collective situation will not be one which we will communicate of with pleasure,” Muhammad stated.
Hailing from Baltimore, Rashad D. Staton is a public servant and self proclaimed “catalyst of change” who is devoted to empowering communities and youth by advocacy, organizational capacity-building and socio-political engagement. He’s the chief director of Neighborhood Legislation in Motion (CLIA), a nonprofit that develops younger leaders aged 14-24 and facilitates partnerships to amplify youth priorities in public coverage. He’s additionally founder and CEO of Catalyst of Change, LLC, a group and youth engagement consulting agency.
Staton is impressed by the actions of Dr. King and different ancestors who laid the foundations for transformative pondering, liberation, and the philosophy of humanity grounded in spirituality.
“I’m motivated by the communities that I serve and collaborate with — individuals who embody resilience and the need for change. Being a part of one thing bigger than oneself is actually fulfilling,” Staton instructed the AFRO.
“I typically say, ‘a easy act of service can spark a ripple of optimistic change, catalyzing power and appreciation that extends past its rapid area and making a broader impression on the world’,” Staton defined
With in depth expertise in nonprofit management, group organizing, and youth advocacy all through the final decade, Staton has served as a youth engagement specialist for Baltimore Metropolis Public Faculties, a program assistant on the Household League of Baltimore and as a supervisor of instruction at Increased Achievement. His experience in program growth and cross-sector collaboration helped facilitate legislative victories, group policing reforms, and partnerships that emphasize racial and social justice.
Though many younger folks across the nation and world imagine that Black folks in America ‘have made it’ and now not have to struggle for civil and human rights like earlier generations, Staton talked about the media’s position in depicting a type of success for people but an absence of progress for Black communities en masse.
“Humanity and civility are timeless wants, so there may be at all times a struggle price pursuing regardless of mass media portraying some exceptions of success, which don’t replicate the fact for all. Whereas some progress has been made, systemic points similar to youth incarceration charges for Black boys in states like Maryland and Mississippi, and the school-to-prison pipeline stay pressing points,” Staton defined.
Staton has labored with distinguished leaders and organizations, together with Congressman Elijah Cummings, Johns Hopkins College, and numerous native authorities and civic organizations. In 2023, he was named a Baltimore Homecoming Hero Finalist in addition to a Management Baltimore Fellow. He’s a board member of the Public Justice Middle and Restoring Inside Metropolis Hope Inc.
All three younger leaders imagine that the problems Dr. King and others labored to deal with throughout his lifetime stay related in fashionable society.
McKenzie highlighted the rising efforts to undo the cultural and legislative victories received by earlier generations for working class households.
“If poverty exists, human and civil rights haven’t been received, and if a lady in any state of this republic doesn’t have autonomy to decide on how she reproduces— or not—the struggle for social justice continues. [If] there’s a distinction within the schooling that kids obtain, there may be work to do, whatever the seemingly optimistic results of integration within the final 50 years,” McKenzie stated.
Staton emphasised the throughline of points that proceed to plague Black communities, whereas Muhammad introduced consideration to double requirements created by Western civilization and the way they negatively impression Black communities, particularly Haiti, which is the world’s first free Black republic.
“Dr. King’s work stays profoundly related, because the challenges he addressed persist in numerous types at present. Lots of the social determinants impacting Black and brown communities throughout the Sixties—similar to poverty, systemic racism, and inequality—proceed to impede progress,” Staton stated.
“[Dr. King’s] human rights struggle should proceed, contemplating double requirements of the West, the place nations similar to France have induced Haiti turmoil and plenty of injustices largely because of western interventions,” Muhammad stated.
