In this week following the commemoration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Clinton School students reflect on a few events in which they participated, and why the topics of peace-making, community building, and passion for leaving the world in a better place than you found it, extends beyond the 24 hours of MLK Day. This piece was written by students Akaylah Jones and Katherine Brown, with photos by Michael Watson
On January 16, 2016, Clinton School students traveled to the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee. For some, this was their first visit to this most comprehensive and powerful museum. The emotional walk through the Lorraine Hotel room 306 where Dr. King spent his last hours was a silent and reflective experience, after taking in the impacts of the past and present civil rights movements throughout the U.S. and the world.
In the language of the Apostle Paul, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. “became all things to all people”. He was a leader, a martyr, a revolutionary, and a pacifist. He was a husband, father, mentor, and friend. He was an icon and Moses to a people looking for the Promised Land.
However, in all this, one thing we forget is that Dr. King was an imperfect man. In celebrating the man, we acknowledge our own strength and ability to achieve great things. We are fallible humans in a broken world, but in the spirit of unity, we have the strength to wage war against injustice.
In his final speech, Dr. King says, “I’ve been to the mountain top.” Peering over the edge, I’m sure he saw a landscape forever changed by the Movement he would die for. Yet, we still have a long way to go.
On Martin Luther King Day, a group of Clinton School students engaged in discussions about ways to promote peace with our neighbors at Jericho Way Day Resource Center. While wrestling with the question of how we get to peace, various solutions, generous insights, and reflections were shared with openness.
We must make an intentional choice to seek peace and equity for the greater good. It is necessary to recognize the humanity of all people knowing that we all have something to contribute to the work of building peace. This starts by first acknowledging both our fallible nature and celebrating every individual’s ability to think rationally, to take responsibility, and to take action.
It is this fundamental truth, active in our lives, that transforms the memory of a fallible man – Dr. King- into a perpetuated legacy.
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