Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to be celebrated Monday
Celebrations honoring the legacy of civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will take place in several local communities next Monday. Special events are scheduled to honor the legacy of Dr. King who was assassinated in 1968. Dr. King was a prominent Black civil rights activist and Baptist minister from Atlanta. His famous “I Have a Dream” speech was attended by a crowd of more than 250,000 during a civil rights march in Washington, D.C., in 1963. Married to Coretta Scott King, the couple had four children. King was 39 when he was killed in Memphis, Tennessee, by James Earl Ray. He was in Memphis to support a strike by sanitation workers. Dr. King’s advocacy for justice and equality lives on across the nation through the federal holiday and beyond.Dr. King is widely lauded as a hero who led a nonviolent crusade against racist segregation policies and horrendous brutality against Black people. During his efforts, his views were considered radical by much of white America, including the government. Dr. King was the subject of several FBI surveillance operations, designed to collect subversive material on him.
The Pew Research Center found that by 1966 — two years after he’d received the Nobel Peace Prize — 63 percent of Americans had an unfavorable opinion of Dr. King, “including 44 percent who viewed him highly unfavorably.” Today, 81 percent of American adults say Dr. King had a positive impact on the country.
Jonathan Eig, author of King: A Life, told NPR in 2023 that King, a pastor who followed in his father’s footsteps, was a protest leader who did not like conflict.
Even as he sat at the helm of anti-segregation protests, including the Montgomery bus boycott and the march from Selma, Ala., to the state capitol, Eig said King “is always going out of his way to avoid conflict with people who are his elders. ... And he really doesn’t like conflict.”
Eig added: “He has to push himself really out of his comfort zone to argue, to debate, to really challenge some of the leaders of this country.”
Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a federal holiday in the United States where it is observed annually on the third Monday in January. Efforts to establish a federal holiday in honor of Dr. King began shortly after his assassination in 1968, with civil rights activists pushing for 15 years for the holiday, according to historical records.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day finally became a federal holiday on Nov. 2, 1983, when President Ronald Reagan signed the King Holiday Bill into law, according to the National Museum of African American History & Culture.
It took another 17 years before all 50 states recognized the federal holiday. There will be no mail service and most banks and civic offices will be closed.
IN ROMULUS:
The Romulus Martin Luther King Jr. Day Community Walk & Celebration will take place on Monday, Jan. 20.
Shuttle bus service from Romulus High School to Middle School will take place from 7–7:45 a.m.
Marchers will meet at Romulus Middle School at 7:30 a.m. The march will begin from the school at 8.m. to Romulus High School where a service project is scheduled: “Romulus Community Warm-Up” from 8–9:30 a.m.
Refreshments will be served in the high school cafeteria from 8:30–9:30 a.m.
The MLK Celebration Ceremony will begin in the High School Auditorium at 9:30 a.m.
The event is located at 9650 Wayne Road, Romulus. For more information, contact City Clerk Ellen Craig-Bragg at (734) 942-7540.
IN WESTLAND:
In Westland, the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Ceremony is set to begin with a freedom walk at 9 a.m. Monday, Jan. 20 (weather permitting) followed by the ceremony at 10 a.m. at Westland City Hall, 36300 Warren Road.
The keynote speaker this year is Detroit Pistons Chaplain Elder Jonathan M. Wynne. The event is free and open to the public. More information is available at cityofwestland.com.
IN CANTON TOWNSHIP:
The Plymouth-Canton Interfaith Council will be hosting the annual MLK March from 12:30 until 2:30 p.m. Jan. 20 at the Canton Public Library, located at 1200 S. Canton Center Road in Canton