Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Holiday Proclamation Issued

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and President Trump earlier this week issued the annual Proclamation (full text) declaring today a federal holiday. This year's Proclamation reads in part:

In the face of tumult and upheaval, Dr. King reminded us to always meet anger with compassion in order to truly “heal the hurts, right the wrongs and change society.”  It is with this same spirit of forgiveness that we come together to bind the wounds of past injustice by lifting up one another regardless of race, gender, creed, or religion, and rising to the first principles enshrined in our founding documents.

Suit Over MLK's Nobel Peace Prize Medal Settled

Reuters reports that Martin Luther King, Jr.'s heirs have settled their dispute over who owns MLK's 1964 Nobel Peace Prize medal.  As previously reported, Bernice King has been seeking to prevent her two brothers (who control the King estate) from selling the medal and MLK's famous "traveling Bible."  Last month the court ruled that the Bible belongs to the estate.  In an order signed on Monday-- the day trial was scheduled to begin-- the court approved a motion filed by all the parties to dismiss the remaining litigation and turn over the keys to the safe deposit box where the medal is held to Martin Luther King III who controls the estate. In a joint statement, the siblings said that former President Jimmy Carter had assisted them in coming to an agreement.

Today Is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, celebrating the birthday of the famous civil rights leader. This year is the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery March and of the resulting 1965 Voting Rights Act.  Dr. King was, of course, a Christian minister as well as a civil right leader.  His 1963 Letter From A Birmingham Jail addressed fellow clergy who criticized his tactics and set out his vision of the role of churches in influencing public policy, saying in part:

I have traveled the length and breadth of Alabama, Mississippi and all the other southern states. On sweltering summer days and crisp autumn mornings I have looked at the South's beautiful churches with their lofty spires pointing heavenward. I have beheld the impressive outlines of her massive religious education buildings. Over and over I have found myself asking: "What kind of people worship here? Who is their God? Where were their voices when the lips of Governor Barnett dripped with words of interposition and nullification? Where were they when Governor Wallace gave a clarion call for defiance and hatred?...

There was a time when the church was very powerful--in the time when the early Christians rejoiced at being deemed worthy to suffer for what they believed. In those days the church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.... By their effort and example they brought an end to such ancient evils as infanticide and gladiatorial contests. Things are different now. So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent--and often even vocal--sanction of things as they are.