Today is a holiday to celebrate a great man’s life. I’ve come to this realization gradually. As a sheltered white girl growing up in Memphis in the 70’s I never heard anything good about MLK. If anything, I heard disparaging remarks about creating the holiday. I didn’t know much about civil rights in the 60’s as I was a child when it happened and it hadn’t made it into the history books I used in high school. Since becoming an adult, I’ve learned about the Montgomery bus boycott, the freedom riders, Emmett Till and sit ins. I’ve listened to the words of Martin Luther King and visited his memorial in Washington. He was a inspiring leader and a martyr. It’s fitting to have a holiday in his memory.
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