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Today is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which celebrates his accomplishments as a civil rights leader and as well as reminds us there is still work to be done in many areas, from racial equality to living a more peaceful, understanding existence. And, in a way, Tuesday is a testament to King's work, with Barack Obama's inauguration as the 44th President of the United States. At the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington D.C., where the Obamas attended services today, children recited lines linked King and Obama: A child first said, "Martin Luther King walked so that Barack Obama could run," which was followed by others saying "Barack Obama ran so that all children could fly" and "Yes we can. Yes I can."
Institutions around the city are paying tribute to King; here are a few (feel free to suggest others in comments):
- 23rd Annual Brooklyn Tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Brooklyn Academy of Music: The free, first-come first-seated event begins at 10:30 a.m. at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House. This year, there's keynote speaker Minnijean Brown Trickey, part of the "Little Rock Nine," performances by James Hall Worship & Praise and Brian Jackson. After the event, there's a free screening of the documentary, Little Rock Central: 50 Years Later, "which provides a candid look at the lives of contemporary Central High Students" and will be introduced by Brown Trickey.
- Screening of "King: A Filmed Record...Montgomery to Memphis" at the Museum of Modern Art: The MoMA is showing the 1970 documentary, which includes "Newsreels and other footage document the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr." with speeches and text read by Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee, Ben Gazzara, Charlton Heston, James Earl Jones, Burt Lancaster, Paul Newman, Anthony Quinn, Clarence Williams III, and Joanne Woodward, at 2:30 p.m.
- NYC Parks events in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan: The NYC Parks & Recreation Department has service projects in the Bronx and Manhattan—a nod to MLK's statment, "Everybody can be great because everybody can serve"—as well as celebrations and tributes in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan throughout the day. More details here.
- Discussion about Lewis Latimer in Prospect Park: At 2 p.m., in the park's Lefferts Historic House (directions), the director of the Lewis Latimer House will discuss Latimer, an African-American inventor and electrical pioneer and the son of fugitive slaves. According to the Latimer House (which is in Queens and open to the public), Latimer "worked with three of the greatest scientific inventors in American history, including Alexander Graham Bell, Hiram S. Maxim, and Thomas Alva Edison. He played a critical role in the development of the telephone and, as Edison's chief draftsman, he invented and patented the carbon filament, a significant improvement in the production of the incandescent light bulb."
- Tours at the Simon Wiesenthal Center's New York Tolerance Center: The NY branch of the Los Angeles museum offers guided tours ($20 for adults, $15 for students & seniors; reservations required by phone) for exhibitions like "The Power of Words" which shows "how modern-day figures like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Franklin Roosevelt used their words to instill hope while others like Hitler, Stalin, Osama Bin Laden and other religious extremists used that same power to spread lies and incite hatred." The Simon Wiesenthal Center is located at 226 East 42nd Street, between 2nd & 3rd Avenue, in Manhattan.
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FORMULA
Trying to please everyone
Puts you high on the goodness scale,
Pleasing all the righteous flock
But guaranteeing that you'll fail.
Here's an MLK Day event I'd like to see:
The democrat party officially apologizes for the illegal wiretapping of Dr King carried out by then Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.
(For the historically challenged, that's the guy the city just re-named the Triborough Bridge after.)
And what was the fascists' favorite J. Edgar Hoover's role in all this wiretapping?