Tallahassee community reflects on Martin Luther King Jr. and his words

As Monday marks the 38th annual celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, it comes on the heels of the birthday of the highly esteemed civil rights leader and activist, an icon who dedicated his life to the fight for equality and justice. Social.

Between the day he was born on January 15, 1929, and his assassination on April 4, 1968, King rose to become an epitome of what it means to stand up for civil rights as he marched against issues ranging from racial segregation to polarization between the poor and the rich.

He was also known for speaking out for rights ranging from voting among people of color to equal access to education.

While King is remembered on a larger scale across the country on MLK Day, his visits to Tallahassee years ago made the capital city one of the many places he traveled to as he continually sought justice for all.

Records show that King came to Tallahassee on at least three different occasions: in May 1957 for the first anniversary of the Intercivic Council, in May 1959 to speak at Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, and again in April 1964.

More:‘Freedom is never given for free’: Remembering when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came to Tallahassee

Related news:Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of nonviolent protest intersects with actions at Tallahassee food counter

As the nation reflects on who King was and the kinds of issues that concerned him in his day, some similar themes resonate today, including police brutality.

Data of an article in the washington post shows that 1,108 people have been shot to death by police in the US in 2022, making it the year with the highest number of fatal police shootings. Although black people make up about 14% of the US population, they are killed by police more than twice as often as white people.

But despite the ongoing troubles across the country, King’s name remains widely recognized both near and far, as his powerful words and significant actions, involving nonviolent protests in places like Montgomery, Alabama, reach the ears of people everywhere.

To celebrate King’s life and accomplishments, Florida A&M University held its annual Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation at the Al Lawson Center on campus Friday with keynote speaker Pastor Quincy Griffin, who directs the Center for Praise and Worship. familiar.

The Tallahassee community continues to honor King Monday during the city’s MLK Day Parade along North Monroe Street from noon to 2 p.m. Following the boardwalk is a festival in Cascades Park from 2-6 p.m. with entertainment live shows and local food vendors, among other events.

Florida State University will also host its 2023 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Week Celebration Monday through Friday with the theme “It Starts With Us: Advocating for Access in Higher Education and Society.” One of the week’s events, presented by FSU’s Golden Torch Lecture Series, will feature renowned civil rights attorney Ben Crump as a speaker Tuesday at 8 pm in the Ruby Diamond Concert Hall on campus.

In commemoration of MLK Day, the Tallahassee Democrat asked some notable individuals in the Tallahassee community to offer their input on the questions “Which MLK quote is most relevant to the current sociopolitical situation” and “Which MLK quote is most relevant to the current sociopolitical situation?” MLK is taken out of context the most today ”.

Here are their answers:

Table of Contents

Bill Proctor Jr., District 1 Commissioner, Leon County Board of Commissioners

“I have a dream that my four young children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Speech I have a dream, 1963

“That speaks to right now with the ongoing issues we see. The issue of race, who can enter the United States and who is naturalized as a US citizen, remains a daunting issue with major political consequences.

When color continues to be a barrier to who can get in and who stays out, that’s a problem. When people of color are denied access to education, denied jobs and bank loans to buy a home, when there are food deserts in the midst of communities of color, when they have poor services, no street lighting, and without central sewer, the color continues. be the basis of permissions of services, distribution of services and access to opportunities.

We have a governor who says he doesn’t want any awakening, trying to act as if history could be sanitized and made colorblind. All he does is make children of color unaware of the historical evolution of color and the importance of the laws that are hidden from people of color in this country.

For me, King’s quote is a very extraordinary statement that is applicable today because opportunities for men and women are still based not on character, but on skin color.”

“Do you know that the majority of the poor in our country are working every day? And they are making wages so low that they cannot begin to function in the mainstream of our nation’s economic life. These are facts that must be seen, and it is criminal to have people working full time and a full time job earning part time income.”

Speech All work has dignity, 1968

“Here we are in 2023, and we’ve outpaced 1968 by more than 50 years. Still, a working man’s or woman’s paycheck is insufficient to cover food, clothing, and shelter—it’s a struggle. In America, there’s enough money and enough wealth, but the distribution of it is still a problem.

Davis Houck, Fannie Lou Hamer Professor of Rhetorical Studies, FSU

“All of humanity is united, all of life is interrelated, and we are all caught in an inescapable web of reciprocity, bound in a single garment of destiny. What affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason I can never be what I should be until you are what you should be.

Commencement speech at Oberlin College, 1965

“Dr. King made this quote frequently in his speeches, and it also appears in his Letter from Birmingham Jail. As he liked to remind the public, this sense of reciprocity and mutual interdependence was not a new sentiment at all, but it was urgent. It’s still urgent. And isn’t it funny that a country watching a football game can suddenly unite in its concern for a young black man, Damar Hamlin? Why can’t we unite for a young black man who is not a professional athlete? or that he is catastrophically injured on national television?

“I have a dream that my four young children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Speech I have a dream, 1963

“I don’t think people quite understand the complexity of this quote. They want to easily claim ‘Dr. King hopes that one day we won’t care about race’, or argue some version of ‘look, Dr. King really didn’t want us to focus on race.’ I don’t think that’s what he meant at all, but it’s chosen for those reasons.

In describing his dream, Dr. King is expressing an expected reality, one in which race will not serve as a determining screen or filter on how someone is judged. He’s not trying to say that race doesn’t matter, or shouldn’t matter. Given our history, we know it will always matter. But the question is how does it matter. How does the color of another person’s skin affect what we see?”

Reginald Ellis, Professor of History and African American Studies, FAMU

“All we’re saying to America is, ‘Stay true to what you said on paper.'”

I’ve been to the mountaintop speech, 1968

“This is the one that really resonates with me now. If America lives up to who it said it was on paper, then we would be a great nation. If the ideas of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were truly infused into the entire nation where everyone had those unalienable rights, then America would be that big, shining city on a hill for everyone. I think this is one of the most relevant quotes for the 21st century.

I think the whole I have a dream speech, not just a quote, is out of context. People forget that it was a speech that was actually talking about the poor people’s campaign, and they forget the whole first half of the speech where he’s actually challenging the nation to improve workers’ rights.

If you go back and even watch the speech, King actually flips his written address and goes into this sermon riff of ‘I have a dream that one day…’. People focus so much on that closure and the hopeful aspects of what he sees in America that they forget the main purpose of his speech in which he challenges America to do better by all of our people.”

Maxine Jones, professor of history, FSU

“I have a dream that my four young children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Speech I have a dream, 1963

“This quote will always be relevant. It was relevant when it did, and it’s relevant now. People generally judge based on what they see, based on their color, their gender, their sexual orientation. Those are first impressions, and it’s often hard to change first impressions.”

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot expel hate; Only love can do that.”

Sermon on loving your enemies, 1957

“I think people say this quote, but they don’t really think about what it really means. I don’t think they understand that it implies some action on their part. Martin Luther King Jr. mentioned love in a lot of his quotes, but a lot of people don’t consider that aspect”.