As communities across the country hosted parades, panels and service projects for the 40th federal observation of Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, the political climate for some marking the civil rights icon’s legacy was more fraught with tension than festive.
In the year since Donald Trump’s second inauguration fell on Martin Luther King Day, the Republican president has gone after diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and targeted mostly Black-led cities for federal law enforcement operations.
Two early executive orders — “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” and “Ending Radical and Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing” — accelerated a rollback of civil rights and racial justice initiatives in federal agencies, corporations and universities.
Last month, the National Park Service announced it would no longer offer free admission to parks on King Day and Juneteenth, but instead on Flag Day and Trump’s birthday.
And the fatal shooting this month of an unarmed Minneapolis woman by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents sent there to target the city’s Somali immigrant population, as well as Trump recently decrying civil rights as discrimination against white people, have intensified fears of a regression from the social progress King advocated for.
Urgent calls to unite against injustice were interspersed with energetic gospel on Monday at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where King preached.
Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) invoked a story about King fighting for the Voting Rights Act after Congress passed the Civil Rights Act. Warnock urged the crowd to keep pushing against Trump’s policies, sweeping immigration enforcement and what he described as attempts from the “Trump-Vance regime” to sow division.
“They are trying to weaponize despair and convince us that we are at war with one another,” Warnock said.
‘We’ve always strived to be a more perfect union’
In a recent interview with the New York Times, Trump said he felt the civil rights movement and the reforms it helped usher in were harmful to white people, who “were very badly treated.” Many politicians and advocates have countered that Trump’s comments were harmful, as they dismissed the hard work of King and others.
“I think the civil rights movement was one of the things that made our country so unique, that we haven’t always been perfect, but we’ve always strived to be this more perfect union,” Gov. Wes Moore, Maryland’s first Black governor, said in an interview.
Maya Wiley, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, one of the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights coalitions, said the Trump administration’s priorities make clear it is actively trying to erase the movement.
“From healthcare access and affordable housing to good paying jobs and union representation,” Wiley said, “things Dr. King made part of his clarion call for a beloved community are still at stake and is even more so because [the administration] has dismantled the very terms of government and the norms of our culture.”
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
In Washington on Monday, hundreds of people marched along Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, braving cold weather to honor the civil rights leader. The parade began decades ago as part of the effort to establish a national holiday in King’s honor.
Sam Ford, a retired broadcaster and member of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade Committee, helped bring the parade back in 2012.
“We got to continue to do this because not just of Dr. King, but of what he stood for,” Ford said. “The struggle continues.”
Parade participant Harold Hunter echoed that sentiment.
“It’s not just a white thing or Black thing. This is a people thing,” he said.
The conservative Heritage Foundation think tank encouraged the holiday’s focus to stay solely on King himself. Brenda Hafera, a foundation research fellow, urged people to visit the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park in Atlanta or reread his “I Have a Dream” speech delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington nearly 63 years ago.
Using the holiday as a platform to rally and speak about “anti-racism” and “critical race theory” actually rejects King’s ambition for the country, Hafera argued.
“I think efforts should be conducted in the spirit of what Martin Luther King actually believed and what he preached. And his vision was a colorblind society, right?” Hafera said. “He says very famously in his speech, don’t judge by the color of your skin, but the content of your character.”
Groups call for holiday of reclamation, education and rallying
The NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil right organization that planned myriad MLK Day events, asserted that the heightened fears among communities of color and in immigrant communities mean King Day observances must take a different tone. People will have to put their safety first, even if their government isn’t, said Wisdom Cole, NAACP senior national director of advocacy.
“As folks are using their constitutional right to protest and to speak out and stand up for what they believe in, we are being faced with violence. We are faced with increased police and state violence inflicted by the government,” Cole said.
The Movement for Black Lives, a coalition of organizations affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement, planned its events under the banner “Reclaim MLK Day of Action.” Organizers planned demonstrations in Atlanta, Chicago and Oakland, among other cities, over the weekend and Monday.
“This year it is more important than ever to reclaim MLK’s radical legacy, letting his wisdom and fierce commitment to freedom move us into the action necessary to take care of one another, fight back, and free ourselves from this fascist regime,” Devonte Jackson, a national organizing director for the coalition, said in a statement.
Indiana school cancels historic MLK Day event
For the first time in its 60-year history, Indiana University in Indianapolis canceled its annual Martin Luther King dinner. Over the years, the event drew notable guest speakers including Shirley Chisholm, the first Black woman elected to Congress, and activist Angela Davis.
The reasoning was “budget constraints,” according to a social media post by the school’s Black Student Union. However, the group said it was worried this was “connected to broader political pressures.” A few students responded by organizing smaller community dinners or “eat-ins” to fill the void, WTHR-TV in Indianapolis reported.
Meanwhile, the St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church in Westbrook, Maine, canceled an MLK Day service due to “unforeseen circumstances,” according to the parish website. But a member of the church’s “social justice and peace committee” told NewsCenterMaine.com that the pastor was concerned about people’s safety amid rumors of ICE agents being in the area.
Overall, there have been few reports of King Day events being majorly scaled down or canceled altogether.
In Memphis, Tenn., the National Civil Rights Museum was going about its annual King Day celebration as normal. The museum is located on the site of the former Lorraine Motel, where King was shot on April 4, 1968. The museum offered free admission on the holiday, an annual tradition.
“This milestone year is not only about looking back at what Dr. King stood for, but also recognizing the people who continue to make his ideals real today,” museum President Russell Wigginton said.
Tang writes for the Associated Press and reported from Phoenix. Associated Press writers Matt Brown in Washington; Adrian Sanz in Memphis; Brian Witte in Annapolis, Md., and Charlotte Kramon in Atlanta contributed to this report.
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