The community is invited to a Community March on Monday, January 20, 2025 to celebrate the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Hosted by the Rosenwald Community Heritage Museum, the community will gather in the Rosenwald Community Center parking lot a 413 Port Republic Road in Waynesboro and march to the Russell Museum at 518 W. Main Street in downtown.
A program and refreshments will follow the march. In the event of inclement winter weather, the Waynesboro march will not be held.
Civil rights icon King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial after the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. After his assassination in Memphis on April 4, 1968, the nation was deep in grief. Four days later, U.S. Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, one of Congress‘s longest-serving members at the time who was known for his liberal stance on civil rights, as reported by The Associated Press, proposed legislation to nationally recognize King.
However, supporters of the legislation expected a difficult road toward passage because King was a polarizing figure when he died at age 39. Conyers founded the Congressional Black Caucus and attempted a vote on the legislation for 15 years. Republicans argued that public holidays do not apply to private American citizens, that King was a communist and a womanizer. His widow, Coretta Scott King, continued to lobby for the holiday.
In the 1980s, supporters continued to champion for a holiday to recognize King and the social and cultural climate had shifted in the U.S. President Ronald Reagan signed legislation to create Martin Luther King Jr. Day on the third Monday in January in 1983, almost 20 years after King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. King’s birthday was January 15.
Unfortunately, all 50 states, especially several in the South, did not follow and observe the holiday until 17 years later. The last state, South Carolina did not begin to observe the holiday until 2000.
In 2025, MLK Day is an opportunity to raise awareness about the man who was King, about civil rights in the U.S. and about service to your community. The King Center in Atlanta carries on the work and memory of the civil rights icon.
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Rebecca Barnabi
