2021-01-18 Light-Hearted Learning (& Sharing): MLK Jr. Day

Upcoming on Light-Hearted Learning

Follow-up thoughts on last week: sing-along and Valentine’s Day?

A summary of Martin’s life by Scholastic for kids (and adults) is HERE

POSSIBLE DISCUSSION TOPICS INCLUDE:

  • What of this Scholastic video – if anything – is new news to you?
  • What are your remembrances of Rev. Dr. King?
  • Do you have a favorite quote?
  • What songs come to mind?

POWERFUL is the StoryCorps audio called “HE DID HIS OWN EULOGY” – by a woman who witnessed Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. give his final speech in Memphis. The next day, she was at the Lorraine Motel when Dr. King was assassinated. She relates those experiences and puts Dr. King’s dream in the context of 2020 too…

LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING

  • HISTORY – often called “The Black National Anthem”
  • LET’S EXPERIENCE IT – Metropolitan Baptist Church morning hymn on 1/18/09 in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. Day. (James Weldon Johnson, J. Rosamund Johnson). Jason Powell (organ) Steven Allen (piano).

TIMELINE OF THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

I Have a Dream – speech given as part of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on August 28, 1963

Along with many others, Rev. Dr. William Barber II is working to carry on Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream with PoorPeoplesCampaign.org efforts, including this interfaith service starting at 1 PM

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES PEOPLE ARE RECOMMENDING

 
In the Cincinnati area, MLK Coalition coordinates MLK Jr. Day events and activities throughout the year
 
 
Sermon delivered at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery, Alabama, on 17 November 1957. Using Matthew 5:43-45 as his text, King emphasizes that “hate for hate only intensifies the existence of hate and evil in the universe. . . . The strong person is the person who can cut off the chain of hate, the chain of evil. . . . and inject within the very structure of the universe that strong and powerful element of love.” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=522wcqUlS0Y [37 minutes long]

This radio station KXCI.org is doing custom programming…

21 Signs You or Your Organization May Be the White Moderate Dr. King Warned About

THIS Christian Playbook article – Challenges to “organized religion” – contains MLK Jr’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and the letter to which he is responding (thanks to brother, Andy, for this and several other contributions above!)

HERE is a YouTube montage of MLK Jr. quotes

Hunger Free America is hosting “M.L.K. Serve-a-Thon” on 1/18 and 1/19 – – For 20 years, Hunger Free America has honored MLK’s life work with service and action. The 2021 Serve-A-Thon will focus on a series of virtual workshops addressing the intersectionality of food justice followed by a virtual service activity with a non-profit partner organization.

Red and Rover have some MLK Day wisdom (and humor too…)

The Greatest (Forgotten) Game Ever Played: MLB’s 1970 Exhibition to Honor MLK (Tom Verducci)

  • “This is too important to pass up,” said Mays, who insisted on playing though he had been excused from the game on account of the Giants’ distant trip. “At last baseball players can show their feelings about the late Dr. King and his work through the medium of this game.”
  • Somebody asked (Tom) Seaver if the issues important to King were alien to him. “The issues were not at all alien,” Seaver said. “I respected him for treating violence with nonviolence. For making people ashamed, not angry.”
  • With Jackie Robinson watching, the game featured the first Blacks in MLB to umpire (Ashford), play in the American League and win a home run title (Doby); pitch in the World Series (Paige); play catcher (Campanella); win a strikeout title, 20 games and a Cy Young Award (Newcombe); win back-to-back MVPs (Banks), win the AL MVP (Howard); be named team captain (Mays); and win the Triple Crown (Robinson).
  • NOTE: More HERE on the game from Major League Baseball

Black-Owned Businesses – Cincinnati, OH region (and nationally)

Black-Owned Businesses – United States

Participants: Ann, Jane & Dick S., Marilyn & Helen, Jane M., Phyllis, Jim A., Les & Steph, George, Nancy, Steve