Observed on the third Monday of January, this year’s observance will mark the 80th birthday of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the 23rd anniversary of the national holiday. It is celebrated in some form in more than 100 countries, according to the King Center.
“It is a day of interracial and intercultural cooperation and sharing. No other day of the year brings so many peoples from different cultural backgrounds together in such a vibrant spirit of brother and sisterhood,” Coretta Scott King wrote in a message on the King Center Web site.
“Whether you are African-American, Hispanic or Native American, whether you are Caucasian or Asian-American, you are part of the great dream Martin Luther King, Jr. had for America. This is not a black holiday; it is a peoples’ holiday. And it is the young people of all races and religions who hold the keys to the fulfillment of his dream.”
This year’s theme is Remember! Celebrate! A Day On, Not A Day Off to celebrate his legacy and work as well as to act on his principles through community service initiatives and programs that promote interracial cooperation, according to the King Center.
“The greatest birthday gift my husband could receive is if people of all racial and ethnic backgrounds celebrated the holiday by performing individual acts of kindness through service to others,” said Coretta Scott King, who died in 2006.
Her nephew and King Center President/CEO Isaac Newton Farris, Jr. noted that Dr. King once said “I am convinced that if I had not had a wife with the fortitude, strength and calmness of Coretta, I could not have stood up amid the ordeals and tensions surrounding the Montgomery movement. I came to see the real meaning of that rather trite statement: ‘A wife can either make or break a husband.’ Coretta proved to be that type of wife with qualities to make a husband when he could have been so easily broken. In the darkest moments she always brought the light of hope.”
Initiated by Congress in 1994, King Day of Service transforms the federal holiday honoring King into a national day of community service. President-elect Barack Obama planned to participate in community service on Monday. He also asked Americans to serve on Monday and make an ongoing commitment to service.
Farris said Coretta Scott King was “truly a great leader in her own right. Even before she met Martin Luther King, Jr., she was active in the struggle for racial equality, social justice and peace. As Dr. King’s wife, partner and co-worker in the American Civil Rights Movement, she made numerous contributions throughout the various campaigns of the Movement and he often sought her input in developing strategy.”
The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. died on April 4, 1968 in Memphis where he was to help sanitation workers protest against low wages and intolerable working conditions. He was assassinated on the balcony at the Lorraine Motel, which is now the National Civil Rights Museum.
Dr. King’s funeral services were held at Ebenezer Baptist Church and on the campus of Morehouse College. He is entombed on a 23-acre site that includes the King Center. The area was made a National Historic Site in 1980.
After he died, Coretta Scott King worked tirelessly to insure that his life, work and teachings were remembered and studied by future generations, Farris said.
