Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 2022

With this commemoration, we honor the legacy of Dr. King and the strides he helped to forge in creating a more just and equitable world for us all. 

 

In 1983, Coretta Scott King offered her thoughts on how we can observe this national holiday that highlights Dr. King’s birthday each year: 

"The holiday must be substantive as well as symbolic. It must be more than a day of celebration . . . Let this holiday be a day of reflection, a day of teaching nonviolent philosophy and strategy, a day of getting involved in nonviolent action for social and economic progress."

If we take on Coretta Scott King’s charge, we must set aside time to reflect on the great strides our nation has made, and pause to take a hard, yet important, look at the areas of justice, equity, and inclusion that we have yet to achieve. Dr. King’s legacy teaches us to consider our wins as well as our areas of growth and learning. 

Throughout the course of their studies this week and beyond, our students will learn about the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the important contributions made by him and those he organized with. In this learning, my hope is that our students come away with a better understanding of the context in which Dr. King lived, the injustice prevalent during his life, and how he used his voice and actions to create the world he wanted for his children. I hope that our students learn that Dr. King stood for love, equality and nonviolence, but even more strongly for justice in all its forms. He was committed to speaking out and standing up to injustice around race, economics, and human rights. He was courageous and bold in his visions for undoing centuries of unjust policies and was willing to challenge those who remained neutral in the fight for equality and civil rights. 

In 1959, at the Youth March for Integrated Schools, Dr. King implored his listeners to “Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a better person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in." My sincere hope is that as a community, our students, faculty and staff, and families, will be courageous and bold in building upon the many important contributions of Dr. King as we work together on the journey to a finer - more equitable and inclusive - world. 

All my best, 

Hillary Blunt, Director of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion