Celebrating Dr. King

Since the late President Ronald Reagan signed a law to make the birthday of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a public American holiday, the country observes the event annually. On Jan. 15, Dr. King would have been 82 years old, if alive.  

As America and the world observe Dr. King’s birthday, it has become important to remember some of his legacies, including the famous 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech, in which he called for freedom and justice for all Americans, including the underclass, the down-trodden and the disenfranchised.

To him, all human beings, regardless of their stations in life, are “God’s children.”

Therefore, he often lamented that injustice anywhere undermines justice everywhere.                                                                                                 

In fact, if alive to observe his 82nd birthday, Dr. King would have had cause to celebrate with all and sundry the American military’s new world order, which has been echoed locally and nationally: “Now the military has a new social challenge: allowing gays and lesbians to serve openly in the ranks.”  

Dr. King, who was also opposed to any form of discrimination, said loudly and clearly that he, in fact, wanted his four young children to grow up in America, where they would be judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin.

Dr. King would also have lauded the fact that, a month before the national holiday honoring his birth, his fellow Americans witnessed the outright repeal of the one-sided “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy of the Clinton era.             

It is praise-worthy that the city of Bloomington and IU’s Bloomington campus take the King national holiday observance events very seriously.

On the part of the city, it annually marks the holiday with a featured prominent speaker.

IU, too, has a similar speaker, but IU Provost and Executive Vice President Karen Hanson personally leads each year’s campus events with a meaningful keynote address, just as she is expected to do on Jan. 17 during the King Day Leadership Breakfast at Alumni Hall of the Indiana Memorial Union.

Also, with the active observance of the King holiday, students and the entire campus citizenry utilize the day to fulfill the national call for service made by Martin Luther King III when he said, “I am encouraging people to volunteer in their communities, not just on the holiday, but beyond the holiday.”                  

The detailed IU MLK Day events — well-coordinated by Office for Diversity, Equality and Multicultural Affairs — are part of the Annual Commemorative King Holiday Program being held nationally with its culmination on Dr. King’s 82nd birthday at historic Ebenezer Baptist Church on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, Ga.

To challenge IU students further, Dr. Laura Plummer of the Campus Writing Program and an essay committee evaluate submitted essays for winners in graduate and undergraduate categories to be honored at the Leadership Breakfast.

All of these cogent King day events are held in the realm of the standing national theme: “Remember! Celebrate! Act! A Day On, Not a Day Off.”  

Additionally, to honor Dr. King fondly, the country and the world get the chance, once more, to re-echo Stevie Wonder’s birthday song:“Happy Birthday to ya.”  


—A.B. Assensoh, author of “King and America’s Quest for Racial Integration” and professor in IU’s African American, African Diaspora Studies
Department