There are eleven federal holidays:
New Year’s Day
Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Washington’s Birthday
Memorial Day
Juneteenth Independence Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Columbus Day
Veterans Day
Thanksgiving Day
Christmas Day
Today we are celebrating one of three federal holidays named after an individual person – Martin Luther King, Jr. The other two are, of course, George Washington and Christopher Columbus.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. He earned a Bachelor of Divinity from Crozer Theological Seminary and his Ph.D. in theology from Boston University. So, yes, he was a doctor, but a Doctor of Theology. He pastored for six years at the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama and then co-pastored at his father’s church in Atlanta, Georgia until he was assassinated. You can read a lot about Dr. King as a civil rights leader, but little about the fact he was still a pastor up until the time of his death. Why is that?
Dr. King is probably best known for his “I Have a Dream” speech given during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963. Here’s part of his speech, “I have a dream my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character” and the desire to “transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.”
Closing with, “And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, Black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!’”
Has today’s America achieved what Dr. King dreamed of or are we headed in the opposite direction with Critical Race Theory (CRT) and Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)?
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