national holidays and ongoing legacies
ever wonder about the fate of streets named after Dr. King? and who were the people that were just as influential to his cause?
national holiday//national reckoning
it’s the day of the Dr. King parade
you ran up the street
just so glad you made it
to the stop before the driver arrived
you pay your dues on the city bus
where you sit close to the back
and stare out the window
and ride across yet another MLK drive
(it could be any city)
you look around and notice
many of your people
struggling to survive
(has his dream been fulfilled?)
i planned to send out this newsletter on monday, but my hope was that the intended recipients would be off work, away from their emails, doing things that matter to them (including, but not limited to, reflecting on the fullness of Dr. King’s work and humanity). so i took the day off as well. going forward, expect to see things i collected in your inbox on mondays and fridays :)
growing up in georgia, there was a palpable sense of Dr. King’s legacy (between the visits to his house and national park to the artwork that displays him across atlanta).
but each year, i still find myself understanding his multifaceted persona more as i search for and uncover the truth of who he was. just like many other americans across the social media landscape who have to confront the ways in which his identity and politics (and even the circumstances of his assassination) have been sanitized to further a certain revisionist agenda.
his work was a little more radical than it’s given credit for, but the potential evolution of his framework is something we unfortunately couldn’t bear witness to. people still continue to honor his cause each day, just as Coretta did in his wake. here’s some context to some of the ways Dr. King has been honored since 1968 and to those who were just as influential to his movement.
a map of streets named MLK across the U.S.
the fate of streets named MLK across the country
the women who walked alongside MLK
this history of making MLK a federal holiday
stevie wonder’s impact on making MLK a federal holiday
p.s. this post also comes on what would have been rapper Mac Miller’s 29th birthday. he’s another person whose legacy is still being unpacked following his untimely passing. i’ll leave you with this insightful video from the dissect podcast that expands on Miller’s genius.