Reflections on Martin Luther King Jr.

Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day Day and, as is my habit each year, I took a few moments to read something new (to me) about Dr. King. This year, I went to National Public Radio’s piece Martin Luther King Jr. was once considered ‘radical.’ Here’s how he came to be lauded.

I am reflecting on three points from this piece:

Popularity–Dr. King was not popular during his time. Even after he won the Nobel Peace prize in 1966, 2/3s of the American population had an unfavorable opinion of him, including the 44% who had a highly unfavorable opinion of him (Pew Research). These are the conditions under which Dr. King worked to move a country towards racial justice, conditions where the great majority of people did not want to be moved.  He weathered scathing and threatening criticism, ultimately paying with his life, to do the right thing. Now, 58 years later, according to the same polls, 81% of adults say he had a favorable impact on the US. 

In this era of instant “likes” and “re-posts”, what a good reminder that long term impact cannot be judged by short term popularity. Keep our heads on straight, do what is right, change the world, and history will judge our actions more accurately than our contemporaries. 

Putting yourself second to what needs to be done–According to Jonathan Eig, author of King: A Life, Dr. King was an activist and protest leader who did not like conflict and had to “push himself really out of his comfort zone to argue, to debate, to really challenge some of the leaders of this country” (NPR, 2024). But, equally apparent, Dr. King heeded a need and calling greater than his own inclinations or preferences and became skilled at it. 

I love my job. Each vision, project, and task differs from the prior, and most draw on my favorite experiences and skills. Never boring. And, sometimes what I need to do for the good of the movement or our partners requires me to step up to a task that I’d rather hide from. This is probably true for all but the luckiest of us. Dr. King offers a reminder to focus on and gather strength from the greater calling and need. 

Service–How Will You Serve Today? Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first officially observed as a federal holiday under Reagan in 1986, and in 1994, Congress passed and President Bill Clinton approved the King Holiday and Service Act, making Martin Luther King Jr., Day the only federal holiday dedicated to volunteerism. 

I feel about this in a similar way that I do about heritage months–shouldn’t this be all year? And, still, I also recognize and appreciate the strength of taking time to call out something important, to raise it in our awareness so that it may stay there longer. For many folk reading this, certainly all of the school-based educators, you are called to service every day. For those, perhaps the most important service today was in service to yourself. I hope perhaps you were able to take today to do what enriches and feeds you, whether that was service to others or to yourself. 

Be brave, do the right thing, and serve yourself and others. We haven’t yet achieved Dr. King’s dream, but I will stay the course and am grateful to Dr. King for the work he did and the inspiration he is.

In service,  

Sara Suchman, Executive Director