Others Were Involved Too

http://racerelations.about.com/od/trailblazers/a/MartinLutherKingholiday.htm

As you may know on Monday of this week, we celebrated Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday with a federal holiday. I, like many other Americans welcomed the day off, but as it wore on I started to think about the holiday itself.  Like most items that end up as fodder for my blog, real issues came about from this thinking. The first question to arise was:Why do we only celebrate Martin Luther King Jr? The second: Why do we close the very institutions Martin Luther King Jr would want open? And finally: What has become of this day?

I will tackle the last question first since it is an over-arching question.  What has become of the day?  Are more people aware of the impact of King?  Are they spending the day in observance of the work he did by reading books, watching movies, listening to lectures? Do non-profit organisations have to turn people away from projects to help the needy? Churches turn away worshipers? I would say no to all of these.  Martin Luther King Jr. Day has turned into yet another day for businesses to offer "Great Deals", not a day to gain a better understanding of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's.  MLK day has fallen by the way of Valentines Day, Columbus Day, and Presidents Day.  I would argue that if "Great Sales" are going to be the only way to mark these important days, we need to simply scrap them all together.  To me, the only thing worse that not celebrating a day is celebrating it incorrectly. 

As I perseverated on the meaning of the day, I was almost disturbed by the fact that Martin Luther King Jr. receives the bulk of attention when it comes to Civil Rights.  The day is after all Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but my thought quickly turned to the others involved in the Civil Rights Movement. Are they not important? Do they not deserve reconition? Yes, he was martyred for his leading the movement, but many others were wounded, and some killed for the same.  Yes, he was a profound orator, but many more took part in speeches and rallies.  Yes, he advocated non-violent protest, but many others were too, others more were less pacifistic in their approach. 

I contend that we need to re-focus the day to the bigger picture of the Civil Rights Movement(s) of the 1960's and 1970's.  We have a day that is celebrating a Civil Rights leader, but not the Civil Rights leaders that struggled along side him.  It would seem, that many Americans would benefit from a history lesson on a day like Martin Luther King Day about the people that were as influential.  Ask any American to list Civil Rights leaders beside MLK and it will be short.  Most can muster Rosa Parks and Jesse Jackson, few more can manage Malcom X but that is the extent.  We need to highlight ALL of the Civil Rights Leaders of that time.  Names like Medgar Evers, James Meredith, Bobby Seal, Stokely Carmichael, John Lewis, Harry Belafonte, The Little Rock Nine, The Greensboro Eight and even Malcom X (to some extent) have slipped from many text books and the public conscience when it comes to Civil Rights.  We need to celebrate these stalwarts in the Civil Rights Movement too, not just Martin Luther King Jr. 

Since I would argue for including ALL of the Civil Rights leaders from the Civil Rights Movement, I need to equally argue for the inclusion of ALL the Civil Right Movements.  To belabor the point of historical ignorance in our country, ask the common American to name a Civil Rights advocate that is not black. You will get a blank stare.  If the base knowledge of the Black Civil Rights Movement is lacking, then the base knowledge of other Civil Rights Movements in non-existent. There are so many equally interesting people in history who struggled from Civil Right of their own race, yet (like Lewis, Carmichael, and Evers) these names go un-noticed in the public mind. 

Finally I reached the conclusion that I wanted to read about these names and to have my own Civil Rights Day, but was met at every turn with signs that read CLOSED FROM MLK HOLIDAY.  Why is it that libraries, schools, and historical sites are all closed on a day celebrating a man who found them so critical? King would find it absurd to close the doors of a library to those who wanted to learn.  He, like many other Civil Rights leaders saw education as a way to battle poverty and ignorance that kept blacks in the conditions they were in.  It just seemed to me that on a day when we need people to be fired up about Civil Rights(and history in general), we shut down the very vessels that could fuel that fire. I must appauld the Museum of the New South in Charlotte for not only opening their doors but doing so for free.  This was however the expection, not the rule. 

What better way to grow the knowledge of Chicano, Japanese, Chinese, and even Irish Civil Rights Movements, than to add them all in to MLK Day?  I do not think Dr. King would mind this, or the idea of celebrating the other leaders in his own Civil Rights Movement. Please do not get me wrong, I think Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a wonderful holiday, but we need to re-examine it which is something I think Dr. King would encourage.