Early on in this week, Monday the 19th, we had a federal holiday in celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday. Littleton High School alongside, many other schools and jobs, took the day off to honor one of the trailblazers in the Civil Rights Movement. MLK’s legacy is prevalent and irreversible in its impact on our society today, and all the positive work he did has pushed America to be more free for all. His recognized day, his speeches, and his commitment towards a country where everyone is equal, regardless of their color, faction or status, solidifies him as a great man, whose actions from the Civil Rights Movement and his assassination in 1968 is to be remembered positively to this day.
Martin Luther King was born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15th, 1929, to a religious pastor family. The Christian teachings his parents instilled in him guided his belief systems and his approach to the deeply segregated and bigoted society he grew up in, like attending a segregated school and the racist society he was made to live in as an adult. MLK at the age of 15 went to Morehouse, and obtained a doctorate from Boston University in his 20’s! In these years of his education and his youth, King got exposed to different viewpoints, and his growing advocacy and commitment to ending segregation only became more indelible to his mindset and his actions.
King followed in his father’s footsteps after graduating, and became a pastor in Montgomery, Alabama. MLK’s catapult to the national stage was becoming the speaker for the Montgomery Bus Boycotts. After the buses were desegregated, King Jr. continued his work, getting elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and lecturing, advocating, and organizing all across America to end segregation and the racism that held the nation. One of MLK’s most notable qualities was his commitment to nonviolent methods and peace. Inspired by Gandhi and his Christian teachings, MLK believed peace was the most powerful tool to bring justice and steer America away from its darkness.
Despite Martin Luther King’s absence of violence, he got arrested during the Birmingham protests for segregation. In his cell, he composed one of his most famous writings, Letter from Birmingham Jail. In work after his arrest, he continued his commitment to end injustice, and the belief that darkness must be relinquished everywhere it lurks. In 1963, on the March on Washington, King Jr. delivered his famous I Have a Dream speech. Up until 1968 and in 1964, when he won the Nobel Prize in peace, King marched, spoke out, inspired others, and shaped his vision for a just world. In 1968, MLK was assassinated at the very young age of 39. In 1983, on the third Monday of every January, it was declared Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
To honor MLK is to continue his work. It’s to advocate for injustice that still haunts America. The legal system that unfairly targets black Americans, the attacks from the state against immigrants and minorities like ICE, poverty food insecurity, and global injustices like Sudan and Palestine. Lots of those suggestions were made by King’s son, Bernice King. The fight for a just America and world has never rested, and it is always in continuum. While injustice is deep rooted and oftentimes systemic, justice is always attainable.
