MLK Day

MLK day in 2009 takes on a new significance (read about the history of MLK day here), particularly with inaugural activities underway as tomorrow the United States will welcome its first African American President.

MLK day in is also called "Martin Luther King, Jr., Day of Service." How will you serve your neighbor today, or welcome the stranger, or exhibit hospitality? How will you give back?

And since most newsclips and news footage of MLK on MLK day nearly always features snippets from his famous "I Have a Dream Speech" in Washington, D.C. in 1963, his post-1963 speeches deserve attention as well, the national and international "radical" phase Harvard Sitkoff captures in his recent book.

Important moments during this period include his Nobel Prize Speech (December 1964)--since this is a European history class I should mention that he delivered this speech in Oslo, Norway--his Mountaintop Speech (April 1968), his Vietnam War speech (April 1967), and the God is Marching On address (March 1965).