Celebrating MLK Jr. the Big Easy way
21st January 2020 · 0 Comments
The Louisiana Weekly is celebrating MLK Day 2020 with a tribute to Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in a two-part editorial that examines the New Orleans special relationship with the nation’s greatest Drum Major for Justice….
PART II
“The City of Yes begins our Commemorative Celebration events for MLK Day! Check out the list of events! Bring the family to Remember, Celebrate, Act. Let’s pay it forward New Orleans,” New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell posted on her Facebook page, along with the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Planning Commission’s Commemorative Celebration Calendar.
The City’s 34th Annual Rev. Dr. MLK Jr.’s Annual Commemorative Celebration began on Saturday, January 11 and culminates on January 21. True to the spirit of New Orleans, the birthplace of jazz and other music forms, and Dr. King’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference organization, the celebration offers a “gumbo” of activities, including every type of music the city produces, an SCLC Education Series, a day of service, a march, a parade, empowerment lectures, a chorale concert, speeches, calls to action, art exhibition, memorial and worship services, a wreath laying ceremony and a community block party.
Members of the SCLC-New Orleans Chapter were also on the city’s Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Planning Commission.
According to SCLC leadership, “The vision of the ‘new’ SCLC New Orleans Chapter is to become more accessible to community needs while actively participating in national concerns. Recently, the Chapter was honored as the first SCLC Chapter featured in the SCLC National Magazine – The Martin Luther King Jr. 90th Birthday Issue (Winter 2019, Vol.48 / No. 1, Page 16). In addition to being recognized at the local and state level, the Chapter was recognized as the 2019 National SCLC “Chapter of the Year” and a National “Certificate of Appreciation” from the Justice for Girls Initiative at the 61st Annual Convention in Atlanta, Georgia.
Last year, three New Orleans mayors took part in the annual celebration, Mayors LaToya Cantrell, Mitchell Landrieu, and Marc Morial spoke about the city and Dr. King.
As president of the National Urban League, Morial often speaks to youth about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He told students at the University of Rochester that “It’s a common to think of this great man as simply a power orator; an inspirational figure and he is, all of that. In addition to being an orator, strategist, MLK was an irritant, a generational irritant, a young man pushing against the conventions of the time. Fighting for, working for, sometimes being activists and protesters for change is a time-honored tradition.”
Morial explained that the 1964 Civil Rights Act had provisions to give voting rights and protections, but then President Lyndon Johnson agreed with those who pushed for deleting the voting rights provisions. “As scenes of the Edmund Pettus Bridge passed across the TV screens in and Johnson resistant to the idea, telling King to wait, wait, relented and the 1965 Voting Rights Act was passed.”
On an edition of CBS Sunday Morning, Morial talked about his family’s connection to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. CBS Sunday Morning I’m here to tell you about a different Martin King … who in the early 1950s, at Boston University, befriended my mother:
“After graduate school, Mom moved back home to New Orleans where she and my father, Dutch Morial, were both active in the civil rights movement. Dad would get elected to the Louisiana State House, and eventually become the first Black mayor of New Orleans.”
“Growing up, my parents made sure my siblings and I knew all about Dr. King,” Morial said, adding that his father, grandfather and uncle were at the Coliseum Arena rally in New Orleans where Dr. King spoke in 1957.
Calls for a federal holiday to honor the slain civil rights leader began soon after the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination on April 4, 1968. It would take nearly 20 years before the holiday was federalized.
After Dr. King’s death, U.S. Congressman John Conyers, a Democrat, and U.S. Senator Edward Brooke, a Republican (the first African-American Senator since Reconstruction) introduced a bill to make Dr. King’s birthday a national holiday. Brooke also co-authored the Civil Rights Act of 1968.
In September of 1979, Stevie Wonder released “Happy Birthday” and six million signatures in favor of a federal holiday commemorating Dr. King were sent to Congress.
President Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law in 1983.
On January 16, 1986, Mrs. Coretta Scott King and her four children unveiled a bust of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda. It was the first work of art representing a Black person to be placed in the Capitol and it was a highlight of the week long celebration of King’s 57th birthday.
It wasn’t until 2000, that MLK Day was officially observed in all 50 states. Canada, Israel, Japan, and the Netherlands also commemorate his birth and legacy.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell is urging all citizens of New Orleans to Remember, Celebrate and Act in 2020.
And we should take her advice. Ironically and sadly, we are facing many of the same discriminatory tactics Dr. King fought against. The votes of people of color and African Americans, specifically, are being suppressed, diluted, purged, or disqualified. Our right to equal protection under the law is being threatened as Trump stacks the federal judiciary with white men who think like him. Poverty in our communities persist and wages are stagnant. And discrimination is still being hurled at us by people in power, on our jobs, in schools and elsewhere. We have not realized Dr. King’s dream. We are not be judged by the content of our character. We are still being judged by the color of our skin.
We should also heed the advice of former Mayor Marc Morial who said, “If America re-embraces the vision of an America where children from any race and any background and any creed will and can join together with children of any other race, background and creed, to transform this nation into a 21st century citadel of freedom and justice for all, then we will have fulfilled his work and completed his vision.”
That’s a big “if.” But just as Dr. King came to New Orleans and found a community willing to stand up and fight for justice, so do we still have successive generations who are ready to pick up the mantle and fight. The torch has been passed. It’s our sons, daughters, and grandchildren’s turn to propel our perpetual Civil Rights Movement forward.
The Louisiana Weekly also encourages everyone, young, old, and in-between, to remember, celebrate and act on the mission of the City of New Orleans Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Planning Commission:
To perpetuate the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
To advance Dr. King’s philosophy of Nonviolent Social Change
To empower youth for public speaking, leadership roles and social entrepreneurship.
To apply Dr. King’s philosophy for community renewal and actualize the eradication of poverty and racism.
This article originally published in the January 20, 2019 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
