Missing the Point on MLK John McWhorter, The Root | January 19, 2011
During this time of year, we in the media are given to expounding on what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would have counseled in our era, especially about poverty and war.
But there is an aspect of what King was all about that we tend to miss, because time passes, and technology preserves and highlights public speeches more readily than the proceeds of meetings and the contents of memos. Likely, the most iconic image of King in most of our minds is the “I Have a Dream” speech, with its drama, its music, its thrill, its significance. But to study King’s life is to marvel at how very much the man did from day to day.
He had a knack for a speech, like our current president. But orating was, for him, a tool. King’s more significant legacy — although we can’t play it back and swoon to it as we can a speech — was what he accomplished. (Read more)
Martin Luther King Day Of Service: Obamas Volunteer At Stuart Hobson Middle School Huffington Post | January 17, 2011
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama honored the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday by joining a painting project at a school on Capitol Hill.
On the federal holiday named for the slain civil rights leader, Obama brought his family to Stuart Hobson Middle School, where he and first lady Michelle Obama helped paint bright red apple characters on pillars in the lunchroom to encourage healthier eating.
Their daughters, Malia, 12, and Sasha, 9, sat separately at tables and worked on other painting projects.
Obama said King’s legacy is also about service, in addition to his pursuit of justice and equality. Obama urged Americans to get out into their communities on Monday – a step he suggested would have special meaning after the Jan. 8 shooting rampage in Tucson, Ariz.
“After a painful week where so many of us were focused on tragedy, it’s good for us to remind ourselves of what this country is all about,” he told reporters. “This kind of service project is what’s best in us.” (Read more)
Chicago school recognizes Martin Luther King holiday by keeping students in class
Dawn Turner Trice, Chicago Tribune, January 17, 2011
While many students across the country will be out of school on Monday celebrating the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, the nearly 550 young men and women of Providence St. Mel will be in class.
Paul J. Adams III, the school’s founder and president, said Providence St. Mel has never closed its doors on King Day. Instead, the entire day always is dedicated to lessons about King. Adams, 70, who grew up in Montgomery, Ala., and met King on several occasions, shares stories from his personal experiences with the civil rights leader.
“Dr. King was an educator,” said Adams, who will address an assembly of parents, faculty and students on Monday. “I find it the most ridiculous thing in the world that schools are closed to commemorate his birthday. To me, it’s disrespectful, especially in the black community, when our children are behind.”
For 40 years, Adams has been committed to closing the gap. If a student can go the distance at this private school, which serves children from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade from some of the city’s most embattled neighborhoods, he guarantees his high school seniors will get admission to four-year colleges. (Read more)
Top 6 MLK Tribute Songs [Audio] News One | January 17, 2011
On Martin Luther King day NewsOne honors him by presenting the top 5 songs paying tribute to him. Here’s our Top 5 Martin Luther King Tribute songs. (Read more)
‘Star Trek’s’ Nichelle Nichols on How Martin Luther King Jr. Changed Her Life Dennis Nishi, Wall Street Journal | January 17, 2011
Best known for playing Lieutenant Uhura, the communications officer on the original 60’s ‘Star Trek’ television series, Nichelle Nichols is one of the first African-American women to be cast in a role other than stereotyped black maid or nanny. She also performed the first inter-racial kiss on national television, which is one of many behind the scene stories told in the upcoming “Pioneers of Television.” The four-part PBS series pays homage to the first generation of genre television shows and the actors who helped break new ground. Speakeasy spoke with Nichelle Nichols, now 78, about her career and how Martin Luther King Jr. changed her life. (Read more)
King, Obama Listed as Most Influential African American Leaders MSNBC | January 17, 2011
Prof. Melissa Harris-Perry recaps theGrio.com’s list of the top 25 influential black leaders of all time.
Schools try to bring King into 21st century Dahleen Glanton, Chicago Tribune, January 16, 2011
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated two decades before Tyris Jones was born.
And in that time span, which for 21-year-old Jones is two lifetimes, America has evolved from a nation of segregated classrooms and racially designated drinking fountains to a country more like what King dreamed it could be.
Many young people cannot imagine life any other way, which can make it difficult for them to find meaning in the civil rights movement that took place almost a half-century ago.
“The main thing is trying to figure out what Dr. King’s message means today,” said Jones, a junior political science major atNorthwestern University. “It’s different than the segregated buses and the burned-down churches. For me, the question is: How do I make what Dr. King stood for a part of my life?” (Read more)
Remembering MLK: The Things We’ve Forgotten Would Guide Us
Barbara Ransby, Colorlines | January 14, 2011
Martin Luther King, Jr., would have been 82 this month, and his assassination occurred nearly 43 years ago. As we get further and further from that time, memories get fuzzy and a kind of collective amnesia sets in, as Vincent Harding has observed, some of it deliberately promoted amnesia. So, the question is how to remember King clearly and to see that amazing moment in history that he participated in through a sharp and focused lens? Three things come to mind.
First of all, King was a radical. Not the venomous kind that promotes reckless violence against innocent people; quite the opposite. King was a radical in his criticism of the root causes of injustice, and in his brilliantly imaginative vision of a different, more just and humane world. For example, King did not just urge protesters to be non-violent, he urged politicians and governments to be non-violent. In 1968 he took a brave stance against the war in Vietnam, in a speech in New York City’s Riverside Church, that cost him some of his liberal supporters. He criticized the injustices of capitalism: persistent poverty, inadequate aid to workers and the poor, and growing wealth disparity. Let us remember he died demanding not simply integration, but labor rights for striking sanitation workers in Memphis. (Read more)
Poll: Americans say they will honor Dr. King holiday Associated Press (via The Grio) | January 14, 2011
ATLANTA (AP) — Despite having their first black president, Americans are no more certain than before that the country is closer to the racial equality preached by Martin Luther King Jr., a poll shows.
Seventy-seven percent of people interviewed in an AP-GfK poll say there has been significant progress toward King’s dream, about the same as the 75 percent who felt that way in 2006, before Obama was elected. Just over one in five, 22 percent, say they feel there has been “no significant progress” toward that dream. (Read more)
“The exuberance and thrill of seeing an African American elected to the presidency has been tempered by the outrageous claims that we’ve heard about him,” said William Jelani Cobb, a history professor at Rutgers University.
Real concerns that King fought for remain, even with a black president, he said. (Read more)
A Close Look at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial NBC Washington | January 13, 2011
Ahead of celebrations of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, some local officials got an up close and personal tour of the memorial being built in his honor.
Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr. in 2011
Missing the Point on MLK
John McWhorter, The Root | January 19, 2011
Martin Luther King Day Of Service: Obamas Volunteer At Stuart Hobson Middle School
Huffington Post | January 17, 2011
Chicago school recognizes Martin Luther King holiday by keeping students in class
Dawn Turner Trice, Chicago Tribune, January 17, 2011
Top 6 MLK Tribute Songs [Audio]
News One | January 17, 2011
On Martin Luther King day NewsOne honors him by presenting the top 5 songs paying tribute to him. Here’s our Top 5 Martin Luther King Tribute songs. (Read more)
‘Star Trek’s’ Nichelle Nichols on How Martin Luther King Jr. Changed Her Life
Dennis Nishi, Wall Street Journal | January 17, 2011
King, Obama Listed as Most Influential African American Leaders
MSNBC | January 17, 2011
Prof. Melissa Harris-Perry recaps theGrio.com’s list of the top 25 influential black leaders of all time.
Schools try to bring King into 21st century
Dahleen Glanton, Chicago Tribune, January 16, 2011
Remembering MLK: The Things We’ve Forgotten Would Guide Us
Barbara Ransby, Colorlines | January 14, 2011
Poll: Americans say they will honor Dr. King holiday
Associated Press (via The Grio) | January 14, 2011
A Close Look at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial
NBC Washington | January 13, 2011
Ahead of celebrations of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, some local officials got an up close and personal tour of the memorial being built in his honor.
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