Rafaela Prifti/
Honoring Martin Luther King Jr. requires politicians to fully embrace and act on the lessons from the civil rights leader, said his youngest daughter Rev. Bernice King at the commemorative ceremony early this week. The service is held annually at the Ebenezer Baptist Church where the social activist ministered. He served there as co-pastor with his father, Martin Luther King, Sr., from 1960 until his assassination in 1968. Rev. Bernice King said that she is “exhausted, exasperated and frankly, disappointed “to hear her father’s words about justice quoted extensively alongside “so little progress” with regard to society’s profound problems. Indeed, the national holiday, observed nationwide, is celebrated with marches and parades and with speeches by civil rights and political leaders across the country. Yet, “Dr King,” she noted, “puts some demands on us to change our ways.”
On that note, President Biden told the congregants, dignitaries and elected officials gathered at the Baptist Church that “the battle for the soul of this nation is perennial: it’s a constant struggle … between hope and fear, kindness and cruelty, justice and injustice.”
In his remarks, the president said that for all the progress the United States has made, the country had now reached a critical point in its history. “Progress is never easy, but it’s always possible and things do get better in our march to a more perfect union. He called this moment an “inflection point”, where a lot of work “has to continue on economic justice, civil rights, voting rights, protecting our democracy.”
President Biden pointed out that at the time of choosing we currently live in, the legacy of the civil rights leader gains even more significance. “… Are we a people who will choose democracy over autocracy? …I believe Dr. King’s life and legacy show us the way and we should pay attention.” On the other side of the ocean, US Ambassador in Albania Yuri Kim, in her Twitter post, echoed the teachings of the prominent civil rights leader: “Today, we celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who is remembered for his commitment to justice and peace in America and around the world. May we all do our part to make his dream more real every day.”
As detailed in Dr. King’s biography, in the eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action; meanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles. Since King’s birthday was first observed in 1983, it’s been a tradition for volunteers across the country to devote the day to public service. You may select a way to take part in projects or opportunities that are available in your area and make service to others an indispensable part of your life experience. There is no better way to carry out Dr. King’s message and to continue his unfinished work than to begin with yourself, as his daughter put it at the commemorative ceremony.
King was gunned down at the age of 39 in Memphis in 1968 as he advocated for better pay and working conditions for the city’s sanitation workers. He helped drive passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. He would have celebrated his 94th birthday on Sunday. Dr. King is memorialized in hundreds of statues, parks, gardens, streets, squares, schools and churches all around the world as a leader whose teachings are increasingly-relevant to the progress of humankind.