Why do we celebrate a holiday honoring a man who was arrested and jailed twenty-nine times, and was ultimately assassinated? What lessons can we learn from this man, Martin Luther King, Jr. and from an American society and institutions who seem to have forgotten his contributions that made him worthy of a national holiday? Martin Luther King, a powerful pastor and speaker, was both the catalyst for and the central figure in the Civil Rights movement that extended from 1955 to 1968.
King would condemn Critical Race Theory because it perpetuates negative racial stereotypes, albeit in a reversal, which denigrate the White race.
In King's most famous "I have a dream" speech, delivered from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. on August 28, 1963, it was as if the Almighty was calling America to rise up and fulfill its spiritual destiny.
Few American leaders have remained as clearheaded about the dangers of groupthink as King.
He reminds us of Emerson's words: "Whoso would be a man must be a non-conformist." And drawing on Apostle Paul's teachings, King implored that, "Any Christian who blindly accepts the opinions of the majority and in fear and timidity follows a path of expediency and social approval is a mental and spiritual slave." King also commended those who went against the crowd, reminding us that, "The trailblazers in human, academic, scientific, and religious freedom have always been nonconformists [so] in any cause that concerns the progress of mankind, put your faith in the nonconformist!" King's lesser-known speeches and sermons also provide prescient insight on the times in which we live.
Clearly there is much to learn from and reflect on in the life of Martin Luther King Jr. Most significant and formidable about the man was the unique, vital, and powerful role he played in the unfinished progress of America.
Nearly two hundred years after the vision expressed in the Declaration of Independence, and one hundred years after the Civil War and Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation, King fulfilled his redemptive mission, sacrificing his life to finish the work he described as making people, "Free at last, free at last."
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