Martin Luther King Jr. Day presents a unique opportunity each
year to celebrate the legendary civil rights leader and his ideas.
But for some, the significance of the day is almost entirely
lost.
“I was not even aware next Monday was Martin Luther King
Jr. Day,” said third-year computer science student Jay
Arizabal.
Arizabal belongs to a growing group of students that remains
largely ignorant of the impact and message of ““ as well as
the day dedicated to ““ King.
“It is not something I think about a lot,” said
third-year mathematics student Michael Shey. “The message has
largely disappeared ““ it’s just another day off for
most people.”
Nonetheless, Shey believes it is essential that the younger
generation remember King’s significance, despite his own
acknowledged apathy toward the holiday. He said youths such as his
brother could greatly benefit from the ideas on diversity and
tolerance the civil rights leader advocated.
“The younger generation needs to know (about King),”
Shey said. “They need to know the history.”
Josephine Nguyen is an exception to the trend toward
indifference regarding the holiday.
The night before the holiday each year, she goes to an African
American church at UC Irvine, where she is a third-year biology
student. She said it reminds her of the many barriers he broke for
minorities in the United States.
Nguyen laments the ignorance that plagues many of her peers
concerning the man and the holiday.
“All people know about him is that he gave that speech,
“˜I Have a Dream,’ but there is so much more to
him,” she said.
There are several campus activities planned this month to combat
this lack of awareness, offering a more complex portrayal of
King.
On Wednesday, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 36th Memorial
Anniversary Celebration was held in the Faculty Center. With the
title “Remember! Celebrate! Act! A Day On … Not A Day
Off,” the gathering challenged disinterest regarding the
holiday pervading much of the population.
Several shared their thoughts on the relevance of King’s
legacy today, providing insights into his contributions beyond the
famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
Darnell Hunt, director of the Bunche Center for African American
Studies, said people often neglect the more pragmatic and economic
components of King’s message in favor of his more idealistic
thoughts.
“People forget that he talked about equal economic
opportunity,” Hunt said. “It is not enough to sit at a
desegregated lunch counter if you can’t afford to buy a
meal.”
Hunt also identified the recent anti-war protests regarding Iraq
as part of King’s legacy that has persisted to the
present.
“(King) was a staunch opponent of Vietnam,” he said.
“Whenever you see injustice, you see the people fighting it
inspired by King and the stances he took.”
The peaceful manner in which King took his stances has also
remained decades after his death. Acting in the tradition of Henry
David Thoreau and Mahatma Gandhi, King practiced non-violent civil
disobedience to protest social inequality.
Campus Resources Analyst Agrippa Ezozo said King’s
promotion of peace remains his greatest and most enduring
contribution. King’s success ““ non-violent measures
contributing to the desegregation of the Montgomery bus system and
the passage of the Civil Rights Bill of 1965 ““ has inspired
subsequent generations of activists to pursue social change without
resorting to violence.
Ezozo has witnessed firsthand the impact that King’s
message of peace continues to make in the world. As founder of the
African Diaspora Foundation, he organizes the travel of
U.S.-trained teachers to Africa to instruct students on
King’s message of peace.
At a time when students of the United States can neglect his
message, the students of Africa are beginning to discover it.
He is currently pursuing measures to make King’s message
mandatory reading in African high schools. Ezozo said the impact of
such a policy could be tremendous.
“We made English mandatory in all schools and now everyone
speaks English,” he said. “If we make peace education
mandatory, peace should follow.”
The keynote speaker for the King Memorial Celebration was the
Rev. Dr. James M. Lawson Jr., a pastor and civil rights activist
who worked closely with King. He reflected on the enduring
importance of King’s ideas of peace and equality in a world
largely defined by violence and conflict.
To a generation of students increasingly complacent of King, his
day and his beliefs, Lawson had a strong message.
“The future hope for all of us, and our children and our
grandchildren, lies in the message expounded by Martin Luther
King,” Lawson told a sold out audience at the Faculty Center.
“It is the most relevant message the nation has produced in
the last 100 years.”