Mlk Day

This is a transcript of Nelson Thomas’s Keynote Address to Kent School students and faculty on January 16th, 2023. — Hello everyone, Nelson here. Below is the full written keynote speech I performed at Kent School, my alma mater, during MLK weekend 2023. If you enjoy the content, I invite you to subscribe for free. If you would like to watch the full speech. Check it out now on YouTube. …

Why Color Matters Last year I walked into a 5-star restaurant with my kids. No one else walked in with us. The host immediately said to us “Oh you must be with the _______ family”. He was confident in his assertion. I did not recognize the name, but I informed…

Morristown celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. with a town-wide celebration at the Calvary Baptist Church of Morristown. Songs, prayers, and words of hope from clerics, community leaders, and public officials highlighted the day-long 53rd Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Celebration in Morristown yesterday. The Martin Luther King Observance Committee, in collaboration with the Morris Area Clergy Council and the African American Clergy Association, hosted the…

The first thing this morning, someone wished me “Happy MLK Day.” The person who greeted me was a 30-something-year-old man on one of my social media accounts. He was not alive a half-century ago, when Dr. King was a lightning rod in America. For him, Dr. King is another American…

I was going to write this whole beginning-of-the-year statement piece about what #notcontent means to me right now, but seeing Tongo Eisen-Martin perform at the San Francisco MLK Day presentation was far too important. Far more powerful. Break some rules did Tongo. Don’t show up on stage without captivating the crowd from the opening second. Don’t just look down at your feet or into the skies and never forget to make eye contact with your audience.

This month we celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. We celebrate the Dream he so eloquently described in 1963 at the March on Washington. We hear and celebrate the words that, for many, became the cornerstone of the civil rights movement, helping prompt President Johnson’s We shall…

I am forever indebted — I’m a white woman, and was a young white teen when the Civil Rights Movement was at its peak. I grew up in an all-white town. I know the movement wasn’t for me, but it changed my life anyway. I learned of the movement through my church. Youth ministers I…

Just when the caterpillar thinks its world is over, it becomes a butterfly. This was pinned on a bulletin board outside my room on the transplant floor at the UC San Francisco hospital. I’ve thought of it often in the five years since I fought for my life there. We…

By Elicia Azali, American Family Insurance Group Chief Marketing Officer Over holiday break, my family and I visited the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Atlanta. We spent the day in the community where Dr. King lived, Sweet Auburn, a predominately African American community that flourished during his lifetime…