Celebrating Dr. King’s (Non-Whitewashed) Legacy

January 15, 2021
Category: Resource
Tags: Community-Building, Equity, History, Inclusion,

On Monday, January 18, 2021, we will celebrate the great Civil Rights Movement leader and activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. For many of us, it’s a “day off.” NCCJ encourages you to also make it a “day on.”

You can do that by engaging in volunteer work, attending a virtual event or workshop, or reading a book or article to deepen your knowledge of his life and work. Or you can choose another activity that’s both meaningful to you and aligned with Dr. King’s legacy.

We’ve collected a couple virtual events as well as some reading material that we hope will help deepen your understanding of the values and work to which Dr. King devoted his life, and the legacy he built for those following in his footsteps after his untimely death at the hands of a white supremacist assassin.

Above all, we encourage you to consider how the narratives and popular opinions (particularly those held by white Americans) about Dr. King during his lifetime differ from the way he has often been depicted and remembered after his death.

In many ways, as some of the resources below discuss in greater detail, his work has been sanitized or “whitewashed” in dominant popular narratives. Typically, his nonviolent approach is highlighted and praised while some of his more “radical” stances (such as his work to battle poverty and economic injustice) are downplayed.

We hope you find these resources helpful. (If you do, please share them with friends and family!) We also hope you’ll do some more of your own research and contemplate what Dr. King’s work means to you – and how it applies to diversity, equity and inclusion work and antiracism activism today.

Local (Virtual) MLK Day Events

• Greensboro:
  • Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Interfaith Service
    • Monday, January 18, 12 Noon
    • Hosted by Saint James Presbyterian Church
    • Click here to join Zoom event
  • Women in the Movement: City of Greensboro Human Rights Commission 2021 Martin Luther King Day Event
    • Monday, January 18, 9 AM
    • Presented by the City of Greensboro’s Human Rights Commission
    • Featuring keynote speakers Shirley Frye and Zitty Nxumalo and performers Synthia Green and The Poetry Project
    • Watch it live on Greensboro Television Network, the City’s Facebook, and the City’s YouTube channel
• High Point:
  • MLK Day 2021 
    • Celebrations and service opportunities curated by High Point University
  • Writing While Black
    • Presented by The Poetry Cafe and High Point University’s BCA + BSU.
    • Monday, January 18 (college students 1 PM – 2 PM, middle + high school students 2:30 PM – 3:30 PM).
    • Text or email (336) 482-6939 / dmccoll1@highpoint.edu for the event signup and Zoom link
• Winston-Salem:
  • The Chronicle’s Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Prayer Breakfast
  • Monday, January 18, 9 AM (virtual – click above link to watch live)
    

Other Virtual Events and Lectures

• • • Duke University Chapel’s[Online] Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration Ceremony
      • Sunday, January 17
      • Presented by Duke University Chapel
      • Featuring Rev. Starsky Wilson
    • UNC’s 40th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Award Ceremony and Lecture
      • On Tuesday, January 26 at 6 PM, Patrisse Cullors (artist, organizer, educator and co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement) will deliver the keynote lecture (Click here to register for this Zoom event)
    • Elon University’s Celebrating Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
      • On Tuesday, January 19 at 7:30 PM, Deena Hayes-Greene (co-founder of Greensboro’s own Racial Equity Institute) will speak on the topic of “Developing a World Perspective; The Time to be Antiracist is Now” (Click here to watch)
      • Plus other commemoration events and service opportunities curated by Elon University
    • A Critical Conversation with Dr. Ibram X. Kendi
      • Wednesday, January 20 at 4 PM
      • Presented by the University of Illinois Chicago
      • Click here to download iCal file and add to your calendar
    • Clemson University’s 39th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration
      • Tuesday, January 19 at 6 PM
      • Featuring keynote speaker Angela Davis giving her perspective on Dr. King’s legacy and how it applies to today’s society (click here to register)

Resources for Learning More About Dr. King

• In Dr. King’s Own Words:
  • Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, “Beyond Vietnam.” (Speech, New York, April 4, 1967.)
  • King, Jr., Dr. Martin Luther. Interview with Sander Vanocur. My Dream Has Turned Into a Nightmare. NBC News, May 8, 1967.
• Stories:
  • Stories for Martin Luther King Junior Day, a selection of stories from StoryCorps that includes remembrances from Congressman John Lewis
• Articles:
  • Sincere Kirabo, “What Exploiting a Whitewashed MLK Says About You,“ The Humanist, January 15, 2018.
  • Danielle C. Belton, “#ReclaimMLK Seeks to Combat the Sanitizing of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Legacy,” The Root, January 19, 2015.
  • “Stop the ‘Santa Claus-ification’ of Martin Luther King, Pleads Dr. Cornel West,” Rolling Out, January 15, 2010.
• Book:
  • Joseph, Peniel E. The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcom X and Martin Luther King, Jr. (Basic Books, 2020.)
    • Want to know more about this book? Check out this review by Mark Whitaker, “Civil rights icons who antagonized, and influenced, each other,“ The Washington Post, May 7, 2020.
    • Ready to get a copy? Consider supporting a Black-owned book store.