Honoring MLK from a local level

Today, we celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day. My three boys and I started out the day with a game of Mario Kart Wii. The four of us were the blue team and we annihilated the red team (take that, Donkey Kong). And we probably would have continued to play games and horse around if my 5 year old hadn’t asked, “So why don’t we have school today?” His older siblings talked about Martin Luther King Jr. They spoke of his struggles and his triumphs. I was very proud of our public schools because my boys could tell me all about the 1963 March on Washington, and it was because they learned about it in school! As they spoke, though, I wasn’t sure if they could connect Martin Luther King Jr. to Columbia, Mo., and that’s when we decided that we would dedicate some time today to answering these two questions:

1. How could we honor Dr. King and connect it to our community?

2. What commitments could we make to each other and to those who will follow us?

Today, we celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr. Day by taking a field trip.

First Stop: With a bouquet of flowers, we stopped to pay our respects in the Columbia Cemetery. We brought flowers to the graves of the 62nd U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment. Our 8 year old paused in front of the Freedom Marker before saying, “In honor of Martin Luther King Day, I admire your courage to stand up to slavery.”

His older brother stopped in front of Blind Boone’s headstone and remarked that he had been born before the Civil War ended. “I want to honor Blind Boone, who played the piano, despite his serious disability,” he said.

Second Stop: We drove to Cemetery Hill and then to Sharp End. I told the boys about Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) and how “separate but equal” would be the rule until 1954 when Brown vs. Board of Education would strike it down. The boys couldn’t believe that even during their grandparents’ childhoods it was acceptable to tell someone that they couldn’t eat in a restaurant or enter a movie theater or pray in particular house of worship just because of the color of their skin.

Third Stop: Since we were having such a spirited conversation about schools, I made a point to stop by Douglass High School (the trailhead for the Beulah Ralph Civil Rights Trail, I might add). This time, I placed a flower on the school’s sign and said, “Today, we remember that separate but equal is not equal. And working together is the key to equality.”

Fourth and Final Stop: Our last stop was at Ernie’s. There was a message posted outside:

One day, the dream will come true MLKJR 2014.

We ate a hearty lunch of hamburgers and french fries. I told them of the power of the Woolworth sit-ins and asked them what commitments they could make to each other or to those who will follow them:

The 10 year old said, “I promise to use my voice to help those who can’t use theirs.”

The 8 year old said, “I promise to stand up for those who can’t stand up for themselves.”

The 5 year old said, “I promise to help somebody if they can’t help the others.”

Today, we celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Today, I also celebrate my three boys. They, like all of our children, want to make the world a better place. Now that’s a dream we can all get behind!