COLUMBUS – This year marks the 50th anniversary of the death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his life and legacy will be honored around Ohio.
Monday’s MLK Day holiday is a day of service and other events today across the state, including volunteer projects, prayer breakfasts, church services, lectures and film screenings.
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther and other city and community leaders will hold a march followed by a celebration at East High School Monday afternoon.
Diversity pioneer, Jane Elliott, author of the “Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes Exercise” will present the keynote address. Elliott’s exercise was a groundbreaking anti-racist group social study. She has been teaching the work for over 36 years, working to make people permanently more empathetic and sensitive to the problem of racism.
Last Friday, the 2018 Ohio Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Celebration in Columbus honored people and organizations who carry on Dr. King’s legacy and dream to advance nonviolent social change.
Ohioans can also learn about Ohio’s tie to the civil rights movement with talks, artifacts and stories at the Ohio History Center, which is open special holiday hours 10:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m.
The Worthington community celebration will feature a living history performance by Anthony Gibbs, creative director of Black History Impressions, highlighting the experience of African American troops who fought during the Civil War, and will begin at 11:00 a.m. at the Worthington United Methodist Church, 600 High Street.
While there has been progress on equality in recent decades, activists say people are called upon to not just celebrate King’s work, but to act to end the problems that contribute to pervasive social inequality.
“Issues around race and class and gender and sexual orientation never were really resolved, so we have to popularly re-educate our society, but then we also have to act to repair the systems that have harmed so many for so long.” Christina Brown, public relations chair, Martin Luther King Jr. Coalition of Cincinnati.
Dr. King was killed in April of 1968, but a federal holiday was not officially declared until 1983.