Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Here’s what we’ve put together for Martin Luther King Day!
“I HAVE A DREAM THAT MY FOUR LITTLE CHILDREN WILL ONE DAY LIVE IN A NATION WHERE THEY WILL NOT BE JUDGED BY THE COLOR OF THEIR SKIN BUT BY THE CONTENT OF THEIR CHARACTER.“
-Martin Luther King Jr.
Background on History of MLK Day
“A Day On, Not a Day Off”: Transforming Martin Luther King Day (1993–1999)
Daniel T. Fleming, Journal of American Studies
“How the Martin Luther King Jr. birthday became a holiday.”
National Constitution Center
“Celebration of Martin Luther King Day Still Faces Pushback,”
Liam Stack, New York Times
RESOURCES
Here are some resources to further your research on Martin Luther King.
AmeriCorps, MLK Day of Service.
This is a webpage from AmeriCorps offering a set of useful resources for launching volunteer activities on MLK Day. It includes a link to a site to find volunteer opportunities in your community, as well as one to register your own volunteer activity for others to find. There is also link to a set of MLK Day of Service Resources, as well as a links to funding opportunities sponsored by AmeriCorps and a list of groups who received this funding in the previous year.
American Democracy Project and National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, Planning an MLK Day for Colleges and Universities: A Collection of Resources
This is a short booklet that provides a thumbnail history of MLK Day and then the body of the work has a very useful guide for issues to consider when planning volunteer activities for this holiday. Those tips are followed by a series of entries that offer examples of MLK Day activities at various college campuses. The final section has links for further resources including sources for funding for volunteer efforts; those sources are available through groups that receive their funding from the Corporation for National and Community Service.
New York Times, RESOURCE LIST: Teaching and Learning About Martin Luther King Jr. With The New York Times
A helpful set of resources for course instructors at the college or highschool level for exercises and activities to use in engaging with students on the history and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. These resources include: a link to a background history of MLK Day, Do’s and Don’ts for Celebrating MLK Day, and links to a rich set of historical sources from the New York Times’s coverage of King. The bulk of the text of the article consists of “Six Ideas for Teaching About the Life and Legacy of Dr. King.” The final section includes links to various multimedia resources, Library of Congress materials on MLK Jr., and relevant websites, such as the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social change.