MLK Day
January 16, 2007 am31 7:22 am
I like having this holiday off. But I think we are celebrating the wrong day.
August 28, 1963 was the I have a Dream speech. The first Tuesday after the first Wednesday on or after August 28 would be a good day to celebrate.
March 25, 1965 was the march on Montgomery. Good day for a holiday.
April 4, 1967 Martin Luther King Jr. speaking at Riverside Church in upper Manhattan, delivered Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence. This was one year to the day before his asssassination. This would be an appropriate holiday.
The day he was born was inconsequential. When he acted, when he marched, when he spoke words brave and true, then he affected us. We are celebrating the wrong day.
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I agree with your view but considering how much push back there was just establishing a holiday for Dr. King it would have been more difficult tying together a holiday with his social justice work.
On a separate note, this is one of my favorite posts on EdWize: . Finding Dr. King’s speech to the UFT in ’64 and then digitizing it was one of the coolest things I’ve done.
– Kombiz