ITHACA– Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy is being celebrated today across the nation and locally.
The initial proposal for MLK Day began shortly after King’s assassination in 1968. It’s usually observed around King’s January 15th birthday as a day of remembrance for the activist, preacher, and Civil Rights leader.
Cornell Professor Kevin Gaines elaborates on the legacy of Dr. King in the scope of modern times.
“His life and work really speak to the contemporary issues we’re still struggling with”, he said. “He took on economic injustice, he took on poverty, he launched the Poor People’s Campaign in 1967. And Dr. King also saw the connection between poverty and inequality and social injustice in the United States”.
Gaines also reflects on one of the most important aspects of King that is celebrated on MLK Day.
“Dr. King was known for nonviolent direct action as a tactic to achieve social change”, he said. “And nonviolence was really a principal of love. Nonviolence was the essence of love, that only love could conquer the hatred that was behind racial injustice in American society”.
Read the entire WHCU piece here.
