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Each third Monday in January, round his birthday (January 15), we commemorate the life and work of a significant chief within the Civil Rights Motion and within the church within the U.S., the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Based on “The 15 12 months Battle for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day,” “the laws to acknowledge Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first launched simply 4 days after his assassination on April 4, 1968. Nonetheless, it will take 15 years of persistence by civil rights activists for the vacation to be authorised by the federal authorities and an extra 17 years for it to be acknowledged in all 50 states” (Nationwide Museum of African American Historical past & Tradition web site). It’s a day for which lots of people needed to advocate for a very long time. It’s a day that wants extra days in its wake dedicated to ending white domination and racial oppression to ensure that the justice that King advocated to flourish in our lives. It’s a day that has loads to say to our racially unjust social actuality and to our justice-striving religion right now if we make house for its truths and transformative energy.
Under are some assets for studying, praying, and appearing in honor of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on this vacation and all year long. This record contains books, studying lists, articles, podcasts, prayers, and alternatives for getting concerned in neighborhood service and social justice work. Though among the assets are aimed toward Okay–12 educators, they supply info and educating suggestions which might be helpful for church contexts too.
Study
1. Books & Studying Lists
For Adults
For Kids
- Image books:
- “Martin Rising: Requiem for a King” by Andrea Davis Pinkney and Brian Pinkney (New York: Scholastic, 2018) – ages 9–12
- “We Dream a World” by Yolanda Renee King (granddaughter of Martin Luther King, Jr.), illustrated by Nicole Tagdell (New York: Scholastic, 2024) – ages 4–8
- Studying record: “Martin Luther King Day 2025,” Burlingame Public Library web site
For Center and Excessive College Youth
2. Studying for Justice
This web site has a lot of wonderful instructional assets that encourage in-depth historic engagement with King’s life and the Civil Rights Motion. Listed here are a couple of of their choices (with their “better of” record from 2018 out there at this hyperlink):
2. Martin Luther King, Jr. Analysis and Training Institute
This web site at Stanford College has archived quite a few paperwork by and about King, together with his sermons, speeches, letters, and prayers. For an audio recording and annotated presentation of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, take a look at their “Freedom’s Ring” venture.
3. King’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” (April 16, 1963)
Revealed on the African Research Middle on the College of Pennsylvania. For contextual background to this letter, see the Martin Luther King, Jr. Analysis and Training Institute’s encyclopedia right here.
Pray
1. A Prayer by King
“Dearest Jesus, come and sit with us right now. Present us the lies which might be nonetheless embedded within the soul of America’s consciousness. Unmask the untruths we’ve made our greatest associates. For they search our destruction. And we’re being destroyed, Lord. Reveal the methods the lies have distorted and destroyed {our relationships}. They break your shalom . . . every day. Jesus, give us braveness to embrace the reality about ourselves and also you and our world. Fact: We’re all made in your picture. Fact: You’re God; we’re not. You’re God; cash shouldn’t be. You’re God; jails, bombs and bullets are usually not.
“And Jesus, give us religion to consider: Redemption of individuals, relationships, communities and entire nations is feasible! Give us religion sufficient to resign the lies and tear down the partitions that separate us with our palms, with our toes, and with our votes!”
Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., from “Prayers of Martin Luther King Jr: A Transient Assortment” at “Prayer and Politiks” (daring emphases theirs)
2. Acquire for the Feast Day of Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Almighty God, by the hand of Moses your servant you led your folks out of slavery, and made them free ultimately: Grant that your Church, following the instance of your prophet Martin Luther King, might resist oppression within the identify of your love, and should try to safe for all of your youngsters the blessed liberty of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.”
Ceremony II Acquire for the Feast Day of Martin Luther King, Jr. (April 4), from “A Nice Cloud of Witnesses: A Calendar of Commemorations” (New York: Church Publishing, 2016), p. 170
3. “Martin Luther King” Prayer by Walter Brueggemann
“We don’t doubt that by means of him and past him, you, holy God of the prophets, are nonetheless pledged to justice and peace and liberty for all.
“We keep in mind Martin in gratitude . . . and chagrin. And we pledge, amid our careworn ambiguities, to dream as he did, to stroll the stroll, and to speak the discuss of your coming kingdom.
“We pledge, so certain that your fact won’t cease its march till your will is finished on earth as it’s in heaven.”
Excerpt of “Martin Luther King” by Walter Brueggemann, from “Prayers for a Privileged Folks” (Nashville: Abingdon, 2008)
4. “Scriptures for Justice, Lament, and Solidarity”
The Episcopal Church’s Racial Justice, Therapeutic and Reconciliation assets embrace hyperlinks to scriptures which might be significantly fruitful for addressing justice, lament, and solidarity. You possibly can incorporate them right into a liturgy or use them for prayer and devotions.
5. Sermons and Reflections for Martin Luther King Day and the Feast Day of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Listed here are two web sites with collections of sermons, reflections, and different assets for religion communities:
6. The King Middle’s Beloved Group Commemorative Service
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle for Nonviolent Social Change yearly organizes a sequence of occasions for Martin Luther King Day. The concluding occasion is a commemorative service at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia that can be livestreamed on the King Middle web site and Fb web page.
Act
1. Day of Service
Martin Luther King Day can be a day to serve our neighbors and neighborhoods. You will discover concepts and alternatives to become involved in your neighborhood at Americorps.
2. Social Justice Work
The Episcopal Church’s Social Justice and Advocacy Engagement web page offers an inventory of assets for church buildings to become involved in social justice work. You possibly can entry a “From the Pew to the Public Sq.” infographic in English and Spanish in addition to supplies on nonviolent direct motion, psychological well being first support, the Nationwide Bail Fund Community, and the school-to-prison pipeline.
3. The Poor Folks’s Marketing campaign
The Poor Folks’s Marketing campaign is a recent motion impressed by King’s preliminary imaginative and prescient for a Poor Folks’s Marketing campaign in 1968. The marketing campaign is concerned in organizing poor and low-income folks in addition to all who stand in solidarity with them to advocate ethical and political reform that addresses structural social, financial, and ecological injustices and oppressions within the U.S. Their web site highlights a number of stories, together with The Souls of Poor People Audit and A Poor Folks’s Pandemic Report, and offers info on methods to become involved within the motion.
Editor’s Word: This text was first revealed on January 18, 2016. It has been revised, up to date, and republished for 2025.
Featured picture, “Martin Luther King, Jr., head-and-shoulders portrait, going through proper, at microphones, after? assembly with President Johnson to debate civil rights, on the White Home,/ WKL” (Dec. 3, 1963), is by Warren Okay. Leffler on the Library of Congress
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