Today would have been the 85th birthday of the Rev. Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. An assassin's bullet took him away from us far too soon, and I wrote about it last year in terms of what our nation probably would have seen and heard from him if he had gotten to live to be the age of many of his civil rights movement comrades.
Dr. King's 85th birthday and the upcoming national holiday brings us to another interesting set of historical anniversaries as it relates to the African-American civil rights movement.
We just passed the 50th anniversary of LBJ's 'War On Poverty' State of the Union Address on January 8. June 21 will see the 50th anniversary of the murders of Chaney Goodman and Schwerner in Philadelphia, MS. July 2, will see the 50th anniversary of LBJ signing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law and December 10 will mark the 50th anniversary of Dr. King receiving his Nobel Peace Prize.
Our nation is definitely poorer for not having his voice speaking out about the issues of the day, and you know Dr. King and his Nobel laureate self would be loudly speaking about the unjust policies of the Republican Party from their attack on voting rights to their attacks on women and the poor.
And it's a day I tend to reflect on his legacy and do what I can to live up to Kingian principles in my own life.
Happy birthday Dr. King. You are definitely missed.
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