The Importance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day

On the evening of April 4, 1968 my college dorm room door swung open. A student stuck his head in with a smile on his face and said, “They got the King!” What a tragedy, I thought. I had no words for him that day. My heart cried out for King, the movement, and our nation. I knew it was not just about King, but about people of worth to God — which is everyone — our nation, and our Christian influence.

I was a first-year student at Mars Hill College (now University) north of Asheville, NC. There I began to learn how to dialogue on crucial issues of the day with people who had a different background and perspective.

Even though I grew up places of great diversity — Baltimore and Philadelphia — my daily life centered around the limited diversity of my church community. My father was a pastor. Outside of school and home I was primarily in church. By high school I attended schools of great demographic diversity. My actual classrooms lacked diversity due to segmentation by academic levels. I was a minority. Eighty percent of my classmates were Jewish.

I knew people of demographic diversity during my youth. But they were primarily Baptist people on a common mission with great affirmation for one another. We were colleagues in fulfilling the Great Commission. Conversations lacked a variety of perspectives. I met these…