Every year people take to the streets, airways, churches, and talk about the accomplishments and life of Martin Luther King Jr.  Some places have extended church services while others create programs that involve community outreach for Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday.  Many schools have students recite the famous “I have a dream speech”.  These are the things that happen on and around Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday. 

The acts of service, parades and programs are just small particles of gratitude to a man who spent his life fighting for the rights of all people.  In his last speech delivered in Memphis Tennessee he spoke to the striking sanitation workers about working together.  “We’ve got to stay together and maintain unity”, were just some of the words he spoke on the day before he was assassinated. 

Working together seemed to be Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s theme throughout the civil rights movement and beyond.  During his life time he helped coordinate some of the most impressive marches, boycotts and assemblies around the United States. 

Has Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday become a commercialized day?

Celebrating his work for one day should not be just observed but practiced everyday of the year.  In his speech “I have seen the Promise Land” Dr. King elegantly stated that he will not stop until justice was awarded to everyone.  The passion to help all people should not be held to just a day but a yearly activity to correct injustice.

Instead of having meetings and observances’ of his life, we should celebrate his work yearly.  Let’s mark Dr. King’s birthday as an end of the yearlong of feat of civil rights.  Let our actions speak loudly of his standards that he has set and surpass them. 

“Now, I’m just happy that God has allowed me to live in this period, to see what is unfolding” (Dr. Martin Luther King, 2011).  If he was alive now would he be happy of what has transpired since his death?  Would he shake his head in shame because of the progression of minorities in this country?

Is it possible to use Martin Luther King’s Jr.’s birthday as a starting point to help the unfortunate rise. 

 -Ulyesse Preston