Happy Birthday Dr. King!

As a young high school student in St. Louis, Missouri, I encouraged my classmates to protest our school not recognizing Dr. Martin Luther King’s Birthday as a National Holiday. I convinced them all to come to my house and we would educate ourselves on the civil rights movement instead of going to school. Bad idea…I know, but my heart and spirit were in the right place.

Needless to say my little protest lasted merely a few hours. The school called my Mom to say I never showed up. Of course, she phoned the house. Naturally, I answered the phone and was told to get back to school with my little friends, quick fast and in a hurry.

Unbeknownst to me, my antics would be a precursor to marching on the mall in Washington, DC in protest of King’s Birthday not being a holiday nationwide.

Today, Dr. Martin Luther King’s Birthday is celebrated across the country and he even has a monument erected in his honor on the very same mall where we marched.

In these troubled times, it is especially important to remember that Dr. King stood for “non-violence”. It is this ideology that resulted in things like sitting in the back of a bus, “colored only” bathrooms, restaurants, water fountains, etc…becoming history.

Dr. King, a Pulitzer Prize winning participant, is also responsible for the voting rights that many Americans enjoy today and yet take that right for granted.

Assassinated in April 1968, it’s more important now than ever to keep his beloved dream alive and well. Let’s prove moving into the next four years, that King, Malcolm and the countless, nameless faces that lost lives on behalf of our generation and future generations that their work and lives were not lived in vain.

If you are looking for some movies to watch to commemorate the day, here are some great suggestions: Click on the link below for my previous reviews and/or trailers

SELMA

MALCOLM X