Today is the official holiday commemorating King's birth on January 15, 1929. From the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, Washington:
I doubt our Founding Fathers ever expected the American experience they created to be an easy one to maintain. Furthermore, I doubt they expected it to evolve outside the freedoms they enshrined in the rule of law. Much of what King did, much of what he said about equality and peaceful change operated within that context. Although there is much debate on whether he could have maintained that posture due to rising competition from more militant organizations, his legacy lives on to help us perfect our union. As a people we pay a huge price for focusing on what divides us rather than on what unites us. The erosion of the political environment over the past four years is a daily reminder of that cost As Americans we should stop talking and listen to the wisdom of this great preacher.
More about this day, the man, and his legacy can be found at the King Center website and that of the Martin Luther King National Historical Park.
Sources
Photos and Illustrations:
Public domain photo, Nobel Foundation (http://nobelprize.org/) and Wikimedia Commons
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