Celebrating Reverend Martin Luther King Jr’s Legacy, Part 2

Martin Luther King Jr, at a press conference / World Telegram & Sun photo by Walter Albertin, 8 June 1964. No known copyright restrictions

 

 

By Kathie Malley-Morrison &  Anthony J. Marsella

Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., is gone, but his legacy of peace, justice, and nonviolence endures. Hallelujah!

Celebrating that legacy should not be consigned to one day. Let’s strive for an MLK week, an MLK year, an eternally more peaceful and just society.

In that spirit, this week we honor the memory of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. His words and actions sustain those who remain prisoners of poverty, hatred, and violence, and continue to inspire thousands of peace advocates and activists.

Out of those thousands, we are nominating 100 living peace activists for the MLK Peace & Social Justice Team. Compiling this list of advocates and activists was challenging but also  inspiring, as each activist we identified added to our hope for the better world Reverend King envisioned.

The activists we are proposing for the MLK team are not angels; they are not flawless. They are human beings, with the kinds of flaws and frustrating qualities that exist in all of us to greater or lesser extents; however,  in our view, they are doing more good than bad, more helping than hurting, and are striving to make the world a better place for more people.

In our next post, we will describe the qualities that are particularly characteristic of the individuals whom we are nominating as exemplars of the peace and social justice movement. Please comment on those qualities and offer your own view of what it takes to be a peace leader.In subsequent posts, we will provide the names of our 100 nominees for upholders of the MLK legacy. The list is part of an evolving effort to bring recognition and authority to those whose work for social justice, nonviolence, and peace demands attention, support, and gratitude.

You can help: please nominate yourself or others for inclusion (and include a website address or link where possible). Join us in promoting the MLK legacy as an antidote to the hatred, violence, and destruction that seem so prominent in today’s world. If we join together, we can overcome.