Opposing Viewpoints
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Legislation was signed in 1983 creating a federal holiday marking the birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This federal holiday was first observed in 1986.
In 1994, Congress passed the King Holiday and Service Act, designating the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday as a national day of service and charged the Corporation for National and Community Service with leading this effort. Taking place each year on the third Monday in January, the MLK Day of Service is the only federal holiday observed as a national day of service – a "day on, not a day off." The MLK Day of Service is a part of United We Serve, the President's national call to service initiative. It calls for Americans from all walks of life to work together to provide solutions to our most pressing national problems. The MLK Day of Service empowers individuals, strengthens communities, bridges barriers, creates solutions to social problems, and moves us closer to Dr. King's vision of a "Beloved Community."
Participation in the MLK Day of Service has grown steadily over the past decade, with hundreds of thousands of Americans each year engaging in projects such as tutoring and mentoring children, painting schools and senior centers, delivering meals, building homes, and reflecting on Dr. King's life and teachings. Many of the projects started on King Day continue to engage volunteers beyond the holiday and impact the community year-round.
Although the scope of the event grows every year, many people are still not aware of the service component of the holiday. Many American Democracy Project colleges and universities organize and sponsor MLK Day educational and volunteer activities.
(Source: Corporation for National and Community Service, MLK Day of Service website)
The only federal holiday that even obliquely recognizes what this country has done and continues to do to its Black citizens should be a time for us to observe, reflect, and celebrate — not to perform more free labor.
by ERNEST OWENS·
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., addressing a crowd in Philadelphia during the fight to integrate Girard College in 1965. Photo: Associated Press
Next Monday will mark the 25th anniversary of the hijacking of the hard-won federal holiday commemorating the birth of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. for the “MLK Day of Service,” a congressionally endorsed volunteering guilt trip.
Corporations and nonprofits across the country make a huge fuss over MLK Day, turning it into photo ops in which they host huge events, feed the homeless, and act like they have a deep connection with underserved communities. Many employers, in fact, give their staffers the day off only if they take part in community service activities.
In honor of this year’s quarter-century celebration, the Corporation for National and Community Service is running an MLK Day campaign with the slogan “Make It a Day On, Not a Day Off” — hammering home to Americans that this isn’t a time of rest, but of work.
But as a Black person, as I’ve done every MLK Day since I can remember, I’m staying home — just like everyone else does on President’s Day, Memorial Day, and July 4th. The only federal holiday that even obliquely recognizes what this country has done and continues to do to its Black citizens should be a time for us to observe, reflect, and celebrate — not to perform more free labor.
“Negroes are almost entirely a working people,” Dr. King said at an AFL-CIO convention in 1961. “Our needs are identical with labor’s needs — decent wages, fair working conditions, livable housing, old age security, health and welfare measures, conditions in which families can grow, have education for their children and respect in the community.”
In other words, the fight for economic equality and the fight for racial equality are the same struggle. However noble the cause, expecting Black people to work at all on MLK Day is an ahistorical understanding of Dr. King’s legacy and tone deaf to the nuances of the intersection of race and labor. While misinterpreting Dr. King’s impact isn’t anything new, redefining MLK Day as one of service for all whitewashes and minimizes the distinct focus that the civil rights icon had on racial disparity.
To suggest that everyone commit to community service during their time off regardless of race is to imply that we have reached a level of equality and equity in society that doesn’t exist. We live in a country where Black people make significantly less than white counterparts doing similar work, while also getting less time off and fewer benefits. If anything, real social justice would look like Black people getting a paid day off to honor a hero who advocated for them to have better labor conditions.
By all means, I encourage white people to use this holiday to serve communities you don’t usually engage with. The benefits of being exposed to diversity you don’t see in your workplaces, schools, and neighborhoods may inspire you to enact change in your personal life.
But if you’re Black and have signed up for community service on January 20th, I ask you instead to consider joining me in spending your time reflecting and recovering from the experiences we face every day — a reality that one day of community service won’t fix. The deepest injustice our ancestors endured and the labor and social exploitation we continue to suffer from mean we have already done our service to this society — countless times over.
(Source: Philadelphia Magazine)