Kevin Today is Martin Luther King Jr Day 2024, also known as the National Day of Service 2024. This is a federal holiday here in the U.S., and as such, schools and other businesses are closed in honor of it. According to President Biden’s proclamation, issued in 2023, this is a continuation of “his unfinished work to redeem the soul of America.”
The proclamation goes on to talk about how Dr. King grew up and came of age in the South, in the time of the Jim Crow laws and segregation. These unfair and immoral laws meant that voting, and also accessing public buildings and sites, as well as resources so many of us take for granted would mean punishments and humiliation. Worse yet, this would also mean violence at the hands of sadistic, prejudiced, and racist abusers.
Even though it’s true that not everyone thought like the ones who reinforced these heinous ideas, it still doesn’t change how utterly devastating and traumatizing it had to have been for Dr. King, and other kids like him to experience this firsthand. As a result of these unfair and hateful social norms in the South, Dr. King felt resentment, anger, fear, bitterness, and hatred.
These feelings are wholly understandable. In fact, I’d be more surprised if Dr. King didn’t feel this way to some degree.
Wasn’t it Gandhi that said “Be the change you wish to see in the world?” Either way, this was what Dr. King decided to be. His ultimate goal, according to President Biden’s proclamation, was to transform the America he knew and grew up in, into a “Beloved Community.”
In order to make the concept of Dr. King’s Beloved Community attainable, this required looking beyond others’ differences and seeing them for the human beings they are, and coming together, united to move forward and make progress.
Dr. King played an invaluable role in getting the Voting Rights Act of 1964, as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1965 on the books. On the Census website link above, there’s infographics that show the impact Dr. King’s work still has today, specifically showing an enormous increase in the number of Black students graduating from high school, attending college, and graduating from college w/ Bachelor degrees.
Biden’s proclamation also mentioned making college accessible, as well as affordable housing and healthcare, among other things that some take for granted. Access to resources is so important in creating the Beloved Community, which Dr. King advocated for during his life.
Today is the National Day of Service 2024. According to The King Center, the theme for the 2024 holiday is “Shifting the Cultural Climate through the Study and Practice of Kingian Nonviolence.” This means a “love-centered way of thinking, speaking, acting, and engaging that leads to personal, cultural, and societal transformation.”
This ties in w/ the concept of the Beloved Community. Sure, there’s always gonna be disagreements, and times where ppl don’t always see eye to eye. The King Center link also goes on to list the three evils as poverty, militarism, and racism. Not in that order, but these three things can look any number of different ways.
For instance, in the paragraph about poverty, it talks about how unemployment (and I feel like underemployment could also tie in w/ this too), homelessness, hunger, and substandard housing are just a few out of many examples. I believe that these things are a sign that society has failed those who are going through these things, and the website states that greatness can’t happen on an individual or societal level if there’s no regard for the ones living this way.
The National Day of Service 2024 is a day to help others. However, I believe every day should be National Day of Service 2024 for the sake of goodness, not for some reward, whatever that looks like. Volunteering is one way to help, and so are paid jobs devoted to helping others.
Dr. King devoted his life to advocacy and social change. Today, he would be 95 years old. I often wonder how it would be if he was still here. I wonder what things would be like, and the kind of positive changes he would’ve played an important role in. The world has changed so much since that horrible day in 1968, and I wonder what Dr. King would think of those changes.
I spent my National Day of Service 2024 at my summer job, helping out. It may not be volunteer work, but I feel like it still counts toward helping cultivate Dr. King’s Beloved Community.
Over to you, readers. What are your plans to honor Dr. King’s legacy for the National Day of Service 2024? Do you volunteer or do a paid job where you help others? Either way, I’d love to hear all about it, so drop it like it’s hawt, and let’s talk.
In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, 1929-1968.
