Then-Archbishop Wilton Gregory’s appointment as the seventh archbishop of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington was announced on April 4, 2019, which also happened to be the 51st anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Speaking to the Washington press on the day his appointment to
this archdiocese was announced, the then-archbishop spoke of Dr. King. Recalling that “I was just 20 years old when Martin Luther King was assassinated,” the archbishop said the late civil rights leader was a “modern martyr” whose murder “caused such a sense of loss in me.”
He called Dr. King an “extraordinary American, preacher of the Gospel and great humanitarian.” He said the assassination “was a turning point in my life” because Dr. King died for “the cause of justice, peace and unity.”
Cardinal Gregory has had a long association with the late civil rights leader, whom he once praised as “an icon of social justice for the entire world and particularly for our nation.”
The cardinal previously served as archbishop of Atlanta, Dr. King’s birthplace. It was on the federal holiday honoring Dr. King in 2015 that then-Bishop Gregory was installed as the archbishop of Atlanta.
The cardinal has preached in Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, where both Dr. King and his father preached, and in 2006, he was inducted into the Martin Luther King Board of Preachers at Morehouse College in Atlanta.
In 2013, Archbishop Gregory was among many who marked the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s now famous “I Have a Dream” speech.
On Aug. 28, 1963, Dr. King was one of the leaders who organized a March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The march included a rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial that was opened with an invocation by then-Archbishop Patrick O’Boyle of Washington. It was at that rally that Dr. King delivered the “I Have a Dream” speech.
Cardinal Gregory wrote on the 50th anniversary of the speech that while “the dream of which Dr. King spoke has not been realized… there is much from Dr. King’s dream with which we ought to take heart. Our young people have largely adopted the vision of a society of genuine equality. …Young people of color can now dream of being astronauts, diplomats, corporate executives, scientists, senators, president and even hierarchs.”
In 2018, the cardinal also marked the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. King. In late March 1968, Dr. King traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, to support black sanitation public works employees who were on strike seeking higher wages and better working conditions. On April 4 of that year, Dr. King – standing on the balcony of his room at the Lorraine Motel – was mortally wounded by a gunshot fired by James Earl Ray. He was taken to St. Joseph Hospital, where after emergency surgery he was pronounced dead.
“Fifty years after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we still find ourselves confronting many of the barriers to equality and justice for which he gave such a powerful witness,” then-Archbishop Gregory said in an April 2018 address to the National Federation of Priests’ Councils.
He later said “this introspective moment should invite each of us to rededicate ourselves to the goals of peacemaking, racial harmony and the pursuit of justice that he reflected and symbolized for this nation and for the entire world.”
Although Atlanta is closely associated with Dr. King, the future cardinal, upon his arrival in Washington, continued to promote the teachings of the late civil rights leader.
In 2021 to mark the 10th anniversary of the dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington D.C., Cardinal Gregory said, “we are inspired by the life work of Dr. King and confidently recognize ourselves and the work we must still do in gratitude for each of the lessons he shared with us.”
Cardinal Gregory offered a reflection and prayer at an anniversary dedication ceremony. He said Dr. King’s examples of hope and resiliency should inspire people today to “never grow discouraged in our pursuit of social justice and racial justice.”
The cardinal regularly celebrated an annual Mass honoring the legacy of the late civil rights leader. Sponsored by The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington’s Office of Cultural Diversity and Outreach, the Mass is offered each year as part of the archdiocese’s annual celebration of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
The Martin Luther King Jr. Day federal holiday was signed into law by then-President Ronald Reagan in 1983, and first observed three years later. It is celebrated each year on the third Monday of January, close to Dr. King’s Jan. 15 birthday. Born in 1929, he would have been 96 this year.
Speaking at a 2020 Mass at Our Lady Queen of Peace Church in Washington, D.C., the cardinal said, “We are challenged to take up Dr. King’s admonition and warning that we live lives of righteousness that are capable of withstanding the withering scrutiny of public examination, as well as the even more perfect inspection of God Himself.”
At that Mass in 2021, Cardinal Gregory talked about the way Dr. King and other civil rights activists “realized their potential in the face of overwhelming odds.”
“They pursued greatness when many people thought that they were not worthy of human respect or dignity. That is the way to greatness in any society among all people,” Cardinal Gregory said. “There is no easy recipe. There is only courage and hope. May each of us find enough of these virtues to become the people that the Lord invites us to become for the Church and for our world. Dr. King lived the Beatitudes because he knew that was the recipe to greatness.”
In a 2023 Tweet to celebrate Martin Luther King Day, Cardinal Gregory said, “Our nation pauses today to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His courageous life & achievements surely deserve such recognition. Yet in remembering him, we must also resolve to continue the still remaining tasks. His memory (remains) both blessing & challenge.”
Later in 2023, marking the 60th anniversary of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, Cardinal Gregory called it “among the most historic and eloquent statements ever made by any prominent American social leader.”
Despite that, the cardinal wrote in his Catholic Standard column, “while the speech itself is iconic, many of the challenges that it contained are as yet not completely fulfilled.”
“Too many Americans,” Cardinal Gregory wrote, “await the realization of the dream referenced to in Dr. King’s speech. Far too many people in this great nation do not feel comfortable with each other across races, economic classes, religions, political affiliation, language, or sexual orientation.”
At a Jan. 2024, memorial Mass for Dr. King offered at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in Washington, D.C., Cardinal Gregory noted that “we pause once again to recall his always riveting words of a dream that must challenge us all to examine the content of our own characters. “
“That famous reference was never intended to be simply a hope, or even a fantasy, or just a suggestion – it was a challenge for all of us no matter what our race, age, or ethnic heritage,” the cardinal said. “Dr. King admonished all Americans to long for the day when each one of us would be judged not by our skin color, not by the land of our origin, not by our age or gender, not by our first spoken language, or political opinion or IQ or any other defining attribute, but ultimately only by our character and our human integrity.”
