Well, reminders of King’s work are everywhere, the most recent of which being the first African-American president of the USA (who’s election, scarily enough, King predicted forty years before). As if fighting racial discrimination and injecting inspiration into the hearts of his supporters wasn’t enough he then set his sights on obtaining world peace and publically opposing the Vietnam War.
Martin Luther King Day is a bank holiday in the US where they all celebrate the man who dared to dream, but is Martin Luther King Day as important here than it is there? Do you celebrate it? Do you think we, as a nation, should? Because perhaps, without King the world would have been a much different place than it is today. Perhaps, if King woke up one day turned to his wife and said “I had a dream – but I’ve forgotten it” then Barack Obama would not be the president of the “free world” today and we would all still be dreaming. Or perhaps, another man/woman would have stepped up and fought just like he did- or didn’t rather.
Should we celebrate Martin Luther King when William Wilberforce (the man who introduced the law that banned the slave trade) still remains, in the words of the great James Morrison, not lost but just undiscovered? Although, most believe that Martin Luther King is still so important in today’s society because he is a public figurehead who metaphorically stands against racial discrimination and everything he campaigned against. Because, in the end, we’re all just a bunch of dreamers compared with him.
Martin Luther King day is the 18 January.
About this story
This article was produced by Dahaba Ali Hussen aged 16
