Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

If you asked someone about Martin Luther King Jr.’s life and accomplishments, they might be able to tell you about the “I Have a Dream” speech, his Nobel Peace Prize, the Selma march (thanks to the new movie), maybe the Montgomery bus boycott, and possibly the Memphis sanitation worker's strike (but only because that was the occasion of his assassination). Dr. King did so much more. In this photo from 1960, he participated in front of a department store in Atlanta, and got arrested for trespassing. King was arrested 29 times in his life for daring to challenge the status quo. You can learn about King’s life and long career of fighting for human rights at the Seattle Times’ extensive tribute site. 

Today is Dr. King’s Birthday holiday, although he was actually born on January 15th. The holiday is meant for celebration and education, but Coretta Scott King reminds us that it’s more than that.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is not only for celebration and remembrance, education and tribute, but above all a day of service. All across America on the Holiday, his followers perform service in hospitals and shelters and prisons and wherever people need some help. It is a day of volunteering to feed the hungry, rehabilitate housing, tutoring those who can’t read, mentoring at-risk youngsters, consoling the broken-hearted and a thousand other projects for building the beloved community of his dream.

That’s the way to honor Dr. King’s legacy.