To some this is a day off but it's not just a day off from work or school, it is a day to reflect on how much we've come from and how far we still have to go. This is a day of service! It's a day we reflect on the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. through a national day of service across America.
The
Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday celebrates the life and legacy of a man
who brought hope and healing to America. We commemorate as well the
timeless values he taught us through his example — the values of
courage, truth, justice, compassion, dignity, humility and service that
so radiantly defined Dr. King’s character and empowered his leadership.
On this holiday, we commemorate the universal, unconditional love,
forgiveness and nonviolence that empowered his revolutionary spirit. -
See more at:
http://www.thekingcenter.org/meaning-king-holiday#sthash.lVCvyo4R.dpuf
As stated by Mrs. Coretta Scott King, "The Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday celebrates the life and legacy of a man who brought hope and healing to America. We commemorate as well the timeless values he taught us through his example — the values of courage, truth, justice, compassion, dignity, humility and service that so radiantly defined Dr. King’s character and empowered his leadership. On this holiday, we commemorate the universal, unconditional love, forgiveness and nonviolence that empowered his revolutionary spirit.
On this day we commemorate Dr. King’s great dream of a vibrant, multiracial nation united in justice, peace and reconciliation; a nation that has a place at the table for children of every race and room at the inn for every needy child. We are called on this holiday, not merely to honor, but to celebrate the values of equality, tolerance and interracial sister and brotherhood he so compellingly expressed in his great dream for America.
Here is a look at some of his greatest achievements...
In 1955, he was recruited to serve as spokesman for the Montgomery Bus Boycott, which was a campaign by the African-American population of Montgomery, Alabama to force integration of the city’s bus lines. After 381 days of nearly universal participation by citizens of the black community, many of whom had to walk miles to work each day as a result, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation in transportation was unconstitutional.
In 1957, Dr. King was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), an organization designed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights movement. He would serve as head of the SCLC until his assassination in 1968, a period during which he would emerge as the most important social leader of the modern American civil rights movement.
In 1963, he led a coalition of numerous civil rights groups in a nonviolent campaign aimed at Birmingham, Alabama, which at the time was described as the “most segregated city in America.” The subsequent brutality of the city’s police, illustrated most vividly by television images of young blacks being assaulted by dogs and water hoses, led to a national outrage resulting in a push for unprecedented civil rights legislation. It was during this campaign that Dr. King drafted the “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” the manifesto of Dr. King’s philosophy and tactics, which is today required-reading in universities worldwide.
Later in 1963, Dr. King was one of the driving forces behind the March for Jobs and Freedom, more commonly known as the “March on Washington,” which drew over a quarter-million people to the national mall. It was at this march that Dr. King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, which cemented his status as a social change leader and helped inspire the nation to act on civil rights. Dr. King was later named Time magazine’s “Man of the Year.”
In 1964, at 35 years old, Martin Luther King, Jr. became the youngest person to win the Nobel Peace Prize. His acceptance speech in Oslo is thought by many to be among the most powerful remarks ever delivered at the event, climaxing at one point with the oft-quoted phrase “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.”
Also in 1964, partly due to the March on Washington, Congress passed the landmark Civil Rights Act, essentially eliminating legalized racial segregation in the United States. The legislation made it illegal to discriminate against blacks or other minorities in hiring, public accommodations, education or transportation, areas which at the time were still very segregated in many places.
The next year, 1965, Congress went on to pass the Voting Rights Act, which was an equally-important set of laws that eliminated the remaining barriers to voting for African-Americans, who in some locales had been almost completely disenfranchised. This legislation resulted directly from the Selma to Montgomery, AL March for Voting Rights lead by Dr. King.
Between 1965 and 1968, Dr. King shifted his focus toward economic justice – which he highlighted by leading several campaigns in Chicago, Illinois – and international peace – which he championed by speaking out strongly against the Vietnam War. His work in these years culminated in the “Poor Peoples Campaign,” which was a broad effort to assemble a multiracial coalition of impoverished Americans who would advocate for economic change.
- Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s less than thirteen years of nonviolent leadership ended abruptly and tragically on April 4th, 1968, when he was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. King’s body was returned to his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, where his funeral ceremony was attended by high-level leaders of all races and political stripes.
As you can see MLK Day is not just a day off, it's a look back on where we came from, how far we've come and where we are going. In this world today and all the things that has happened in the year 2015 alone, reflecting on what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood for is not only suggested but a necessity. There has been so much racial hatred in this world that when we feel we have gone 2 steps forward we get pushed 4 steps back. Everyone is equal, everyone is beautiful and most of all everyone is human. We were not made to be the same in appearance, we were made to be unique, to be different, to be US. I pray this world becomes a better place especially for the children growing in it including my own. Dr. King had a dream, what is your dream?
~Destiny Neuman-Ashland M.D. aka Big Sister On Point
Information cited from...
http://www.thekingcenter.org/meaning-king-holiday#sthash.lVCvyo4R.dpuf
http://www.thekingcenter.org/about-dr-king#sthash.6fPDludP.dpuf
The
Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday celebrates the life and legacy of a man
who brought hope and healing to America. We commemorate as well the
timeless values he taught us through his example — the values of
courage, truth, justice, compassion, dignity, humility and service that
so radiantly defined Dr. King’s character and empowered his leadership.
On this holiday, we commemorate the universal, unconditional love,
forgiveness and nonviolence that empowered his revolutionary spirit. -
See more at:
http://www.thekingcenter.org/meaning-king-holiday#sthash.lVCvyo4R.dpuf
The
Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday celebrates the life and legacy of a man
who brought hope and healing to America. We commemorate as well the
timeless values he taught us through his example — the values of
courage, truth, justice, compassion, dignity, humility and service that
so radiantly defined Dr. King’s character and empowered his leadership.
On this holiday, we commemorate the universal, unconditional love,
forgiveness and nonviolence that empowered his revolutionary spirit. -
See more at:
http://www.thekingcenter.org/meaning-king-holiday#sthash.lVCvyo4R.dpuf
The
Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday celebrates the life and legacy of a man
who brought hope and healing to America. We commemorate as well the
timeless values he taught us through his example — the values of
courage, truth, justice, compassion, dignity, humility and service that
so radiantly defined Dr. King’s character and empowered his leadership.
On this holiday, we commemorate the universal, unconditional love,
forgiveness and nonviolence that empowered his revolutionary spirit. -
See more at:
http://www.thekingcenter.org/meaning-king-holiday#sthash.lVCvyo4R.dpuf
The
Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday celebrates the life and legacy of a man
who brought hope and healing to America. We commemorate as well the
timeless values he taught us through his example — the values of
courage, truth, justice, compassion, dignity, humility and service that
so radiantly defined Dr. King’s character and empowered his leadership.
On this holiday, we commemorate the universal, unconditional love,
forgiveness and nonviolence that empowered his revolutionary spirit. -
See more at:
http://www.thekingcenter.org/meaning-king-holiday#sthash.lVCvyo4R.dpuf
