What You Can Do to Highlight MLK's Radical Legacy

http://www.alternet.org/activism/what-you-can-do-highlight-mlks-radical-legacy



Across the country, cities often celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day with a Day of Service, in which people are encouraged to volunteer for their communities. But this year, organizers coast-to-coast are pushing for a more radical approach to honoring the true legacy of the civil rights leader.

“While we recognize the importance of service, Dr. King was not assassinated because of his charity work,” Rev. Mark Tyler told the Philadelphia Inquirer. “He was assassinated because he challenged the status quo.”

Tyler is one of hundreds of activists nationwide organizing a Reclaim MLK action to pay tribute to King’s radical legacy of civil disobedience. Ferguson Action, an organization anchoring the national Black Lives Matter movement, put out the call to Reclaim MLK this year, stating:

"Martin Luther King Jr.’s life’s work was the elevation, honoring, and defense of Black Lives. …This movement was built on a bold vision that was radical, principled, and uncompromising. … Unfortunately, Dr. King’s legacy has been clouded by efforts to soften, sanitize, and commercialize it. Impulses to remove Dr. King from the movement that elevated him must end. We resist efforts to reduce a long history marred with the blood of countless women and men into iconic images of men in suits behind pulpits."