By Roderick Diamond II

 

Martin Luther King Jr.’s 90th birthday would have been on January 15.  Ever since his death in 1968, his life and legacy have been carried on by loved ones, friends and institutions all across the world. His alma mater, dear ole Morehouse, holds several events surrounding the King Holiday yearly.

 

The slate of events began on January 19 with a Torah Study and Sabbat Service in the African-American Hall of Fame and the evening concluded with the new exhibit at the National Center for Civil and Human Rights titled “The Meaning of Hope.” There was  a candlelight vigil and interfaith peace assembly the next day, and Monday the 21^st consists of a full day of service with Morehouse’s Bonner office.

 

On January 22, the film “King in the Wilderness” will be shown in Bank of America Auditorium at 5:30 p.m. and on the 24th the annual King Crown Forum will feature Dr. Sarah Azaransky, followed that evening at 5:30 by the showing of a film called “Rosenwald” focusing on black-Jewish relationships, especially those related to the family of civil rights hero and Morehouse product Julian Bond.

 

Dr. Eddie Glaude, a Morehouse Man who chairs the Center for African American Studies at Princeton, will be keynote speaker at a conversation series about Dr. King on Thursday at 5:30 in the Bank of America Auditorium,  and to end the week there will be a viewing of the King Collection and poetry reading at Robert Woodruff Library at 3 p.m.

But celebration and remembrance is year round for Martin Luther King III. A 1979 graduate of Morehouse College, he was among the star-studded class with former director of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson, Spike Lee, Morehouse History Professor Barry Lee, and former president John Wilson, just to name a few. I had the gracious opportunity to speak with King III this week despite his busy schedule.

 

Over the past week, King III has been all across the country from St. Louis, to Los Angeles, to Washington, D.C., appearing at  events and presentations. Over the phone, he mentioned that he will make remarks at the National Cathedral in D.C. and on the King Holiday he will visit the Martin Luther King Memorial where his family plans to lay a new wreath. Additionally, they will join a community service project where he, his wife Arndrea Waters King and their daughter Yolanda Renee King will feed people in need in the D.C. area.

 

What stood out from this conversation between King III and me was his theme for the holiday, “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?” That was the title of his father’s last book before his death.

 

“It feels like we are involved in a whole lot of chaos,” King III said. “Dad wanted us to create a community and we have to work diligently.”

 

He is right that with the state of our nation and the world, a sense of community is needed now more than ever. It is sad to say on this monumental holiday that this country is facing its longest government shutdown in history, surpassing 30 days. At least 800,000 federal workers have missed a paycheck, and millions are going without normal services from the government.

 

All this chaos over concrete, practically, because President Donald Trump caused the shutdown since Democrats will not give him $5 billion to build a wall along the southern border. In the midst of everything that has transpired in this country over recent years, as a society on every scale, we cannot stop and become complacent with our situation.

 

That is why you see the March for Our Lives, the Women’s March and Parkland High School raising awareness on issues that plague our country, along with fighting for solutions. So I asked King why Morehouse students should celebrate and take part in the holiday.

 

“I feel like Morehouse students have a special connection,” he said. “As a result, I feel like students should be leading efforts of community service.”

 

You see that through the service that Morehouse students perform, the dedication to King by the King Scholars, led by Dr. Vicki Crawford, and the King Collection owned by Morehouse. But King III went further to say that the service should not start and stop during the holiday; it should be year round.

 

That is true. I feel like in our generation we are great starters but we never finish.  We always take our foot off the pedal after a certain amount of time. So, we need to develop a higher sense of endurance in our fight, just like King and his followers during the movement.

 

During our conversation, I asked King III what is something that still amazes him about his father’s legacy. He gave an interesting twist to the answer. Instead of amazement, he expressed disappointment.

 

That disappointment, he said, was the emergence of racism.

 

“It is something we fight every day and if my father lived we would be farther along,” King III said.

 

But he still showed optimism, noting the leadership amog young people and the “blueprint” his father left that emphasized nonviolence.

 

“If we don’t learn nonviolence, we may face non-existence,” King III said.

 

His statement reminded me of a powerful quote from “The Power of Education,” a column his father wrote for The Maroon Tiger in 1947:

 

“The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. But education which stops with efficiency may prove the greatest menace to society.”