the Painting Activist

6″ x 9″ watercolor, $70 ($10 donated to The King Center, FYI, the link to this site has automatic audio)
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I hope you have found time in your day for reflection on the meaning of this holiday. If it isn’t moving to you, I can only imagine there much more for you to know about the life of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Civil Right Movement. This morning, I read a story on Seth Godin’s blog about the disappointing lack of recognition this day receives.

The FedEx woman stopped by my office on Friday. She wanted to know if we were going to be open on Monday.

I explained that our hours really never make sense, but that my team and I would be thinking of Dr. King and his work all day, regardless of what we were doing.

She sighed deeply and said, “Every year, we’re supposed to ask if offices are going to be open, and last year it made me so sad, I had to stop asking. I even got written up for not doing it.” It turns out that most people either said, “what holiday?” or “oh, we don’t celebrate that…”

So in honoring King, here are few things about the man you may not know, which speak to his excellence and success:

• King received his BA in sociology from Morehouse College at age 19
• In 1955-1956 he led a successful effort to desegregate Montgomery, Alabama, buses
• In 1964, King became the first black American to be honored as Time magazine’s Man of the Year.
• In 1965, King organized a mass march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, that created national support for federal voting-rights legislation
• At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.
• Delivered to over 200,000 civil rights supporters, King’s “I have a dream” speech was ranked the top American speech of the 20th century by a 1999 poll of scholars of public address.

It certainly makes me feel that regardless of how hard I think I work to make this world a better place, I’m not trying and doing nearly enough. Will I look back on my life and think that my efforts and contributions were as honorable as King’s? This day is meant to stir such questions, and I hope similar introspection has found its way into your thoughts.