Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr.
Today is a national holiday dedicated to the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King. No mail will be delivered. Banks will be closed. Hopefully, our daughter and son-in law, who are teachers, were able to sleep a little longer this morning. No doubt, our younger grandkids will enjoy the day off school.
Martin Luther King was a brilliant Baptist minister and is considered the primary leader of the 20th century civil rights movement. He advocated for non-violent protest, was arrested more than twenty times, assaulted at least four times, and on April 4, 1968, his life ended by assassination.[i]
In August 2021, my husband and I spent a wonderful week with our then10-year-old granddaughter in New York City and Washington, D.C. We wanted Emmi to visit these historical cities to have personal points of reference before studying about them in her 5th grade U.S. History class.
The impressive Stone of Hope Martin Luther King Memorial was one of our stops on the all-day bus tour we took in D.C. I love the picture Ron captured of two children at the Memorial. My hope is this experience provided our granddaughter a better understanding of the significance of today and that she will always remember the many stories that led to the establishment of this school-free national holiday.
Dr. King was a husband and a father. He was also a magnificent orator. His “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered in 1963 from the Lincoln Memorial in D.C., is considered by many to be one of the most powerful speeches ever given.
I close today’s post quoting this famous line from that speech:
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”[i]
My dream is that in their lifetime, the children we love will experience the fulfillment of Dr. King’s dream of racial justice and non-violence.
May God bless you and all those you love,
[1] https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1964/king/biographical/[1] https://www.cbsd.org/cms/lib010/PA01916442/Centricity/Domain/2773/dream-speech.pdf