At The Catholic University of America, we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day in service to our neighbors by providing opportunities for students, faculty, staff and alumni to work in our community on different service activities at local schools, food banks and nursing homes. In some years we also extended the recognition of this national holiday throughout the week with a “MLK Teach-in” that allowed our campus to explore in depth the legacy of Dr. King, which included consideration of the time in which he lived, a history that many of our students may be less familiar with. This allowed us to put his work and what the Civil Rights Movement was about in context.
For example, last year’s MLK Teach-in included a lecture by a professor of Civil Rights Law exploring Dr. King’s efforts to raise our nation’s conscience about economic injustice during the 1960s, as Dr. King expanded his campaign beyond the southern states and looked at very dire social conditions of Black Americans living in northern cities. Accordingly, students were introduced to speeches and media interviews by Dr. King addressing poor economic and housing conditions of Black Americans living in northern cities as well as the racial animus and divisions in the urban communities of the north at that time.
This kind of programming during MLK Day is just as important as the service day activities we engage in honoring Dr. King’s life. For many of our students, the societal injustices that were the focus of the Civil Rights Movement were the lived experiences of their grandparents, and even for some of their parents, many of whom attended segregated schools, lived in segregated neighborhoods, and often experienced limited access to meaningful government services and equal employment opportunities. In truth this is a very recent history as well as a persistent condition for many in America today.
The current level of vitriol in national conversations about “diversity, equity and inclusion,” erosion of the Voting Rights Act, legal and legislative actions targeting affirmative action, prohibitions against teaching Black American history and books about the Black American experience in public schools, represent movement away from the social justice Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement activists sought to advance and hostility toward basic notions of equity and justice. Now more than ever, remembering Dr. King and the history of the movement should be a part of the MLK Day experience.
Forty years ago, in November of 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed the bill that would designate Jan. 15, the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as a national holiday. It was to become effective in January of 1986. President Reagan signed Proclamation 5431 on Jan. 18 of that year stating:
“This year marks the first observance of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a national holiday. It is a time for rejoicing and reflecting. We rejoice because, in his short life, Dr. King, by his preaching, his example, and his leadership, helped to move us closer to the ideals on which America was founded. We reflect on his words and his works. Dr. King's was truly a prophetic voice that reached out over the chasms of hostility, prejudice, ignorance, and fear to touch the conscience of America. He challenged us to make real the promise of America as a land of freedom, equality, opportunity, and brotherhood.”
As the first national holiday to celebrate the legacy of a Black American, for me and many others, particularly in the Black American community, this was a moment of immense joy and great pride. In January of 1986, I lived in Virginia and taught at one of its public law schools. At that time Virginia was one of several states that had not recognized the federal holiday but had a state holiday recognizing Dr. King along with Confederate Civil War generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. I recall discussions among residents about taking the day off anyway and joining the celebration of this new national holiday in memory of Dr King and the movement he led for racial and social justice.
I was disappointed that the state had not recognized the holiday then, but I did not take the day off or cancel my classes. I taught my classes on the first day of national celebration with gratitude for the sacrifices of Dr. King and the countless men, women and children who risked so much during the Civil Rights Movement to move our society forward so that I could have the opportunity to teach at that law school. I will always be grateful for the example of sacrifice and service Dr. King and others made in the fight against racial, economic and social injustices.
Another perspective that is important to me as a Catholic is understanding the Church’s position on race in America and the Civil Rights Movement at that time. One is a statement issued by Church leadership five days before the 1963 March on Washington, and another is the statement Church leadership issued weeks after Dr. King’s assassination in April of 1968. Both statements are profound in different ways.
The first reflects solidarity with the Civil Rights Movement and March on Washington, where Dr. King made his “I Have a Dream” speech and called for the nation to live up to its promise that all persons are created equal. On August 23, 1963, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (Conference) issued a statement entitled On Racial Harmony that repeated “moral principles” of prior statements on race it had made in 1943 and 1958, recognizing that racial justice was (and still is today) a “moral and religious” question for all Catholics. The Conference stated:
“It is clear that the racial question confronts the conscience of every man, no matter what his degree of direct or indirect involvement. Indeed, the conscience of the nation is on trial. The most crucial test of love of God is love of neighbor. In the words of the beloved Apostle: ‘If any says “I love God” and hates his brother, he is a liar. For how can he who does not love his brother, whom he sees, love God whom he does not see?’” (On Racial Harmony: A Statement Approved by the Administrative Board, National Catholic Welfare Conference, August 23, 1963).
The tragic death of Dr. King would prompt a very painful statement of disappointment and a call to greater action in the fight for racial justice from the conference published on April 25, 1968, three weeks following the assassination of Dr. King. This statement decried the persistent injustice experienced by so many disenfranchised Americans, due to failures from all sectors of society including the Church. The conference repeated its commitment to a nation that provides “equal justice for all citizens,” the importance of the Church’s role in pursuing justice, as well as recognizing its responsibility in allowing the inequities to persist, and the need for civic, government and interfaith action toward this goal.
“Despite ten years of religious, civic, and governmental action, millions of our fellow Americans continue to be deprived of adequate education, job opportunity, housing, medical care, and welfare assistance, making it difficult, perhaps even impossible, for them to develop and maintain a sense of human dignity. Catholics, like the rest of American society, must recognize their responsibility for allowing these conditions to persist… We must recognize the fact that racist attitudes and consequent discrimination exist, not only in the hearts of men but in the fabric of their institutions. We must also commit our full energies to the task of eradicating the effects of such racism on American society, so that all men can live in the image and likeness of God.” (Statement on National Race Crisis: A Statement Issued by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, April 25, 1968)
The bishops’ conference has issued many statements about racial, economic and social justice since 1968, each reflecting the concerns and conditions existing at the time of issuance. One of the most recent is a “pastoral letter against racism” written in 2018, Open Wide Our Hearts. The various statements from the conference on racism are all worthy of our reflection.
As we remember Dr. King’s legacy and the Civil Rights Movement of his time, we as Catholics can consider our Church’s position at that time. My takeaway for this MLK Day is that we as Catholics must always “commit our full energies to the task of eradicating the effects of such racism on American society, so that all men can live in the image and likeness of God.”
(Veryl Miles is a professor of law and special assistant to the president at The Catholic University of America.)
