December 10, 2024

Honoring Dr. Martin Luther King


The Social Justice and Racial Equity Advisory Committee of the City of Ashland (SERJAC) encourages you to honor and remember Dr. King and his message on Monday, Jan. 16.

Flags honoring Dr. King will be displayed on the Plaza in Downtown Ashland, at City Council Chambers located at 1175 East Main Street, and at Pioneer Hall on Winburn Way. There will be a gathering at the Plaza between 1:00 and 2:30. SERJAC urges you to learn more about Dr. King. Go to the Ashland Plaza on January 16 or pay your respects by visiting the flag in his honor at the Plaza, at Council Chambers or at Pioneer Hall.

Dr. King has been the most important person in the struggle for Black equality.

Amongst Dr. King’s greatest accomplishments were the passage of the 1964 voting rights bill (now in serious trouble), the 1963 march on Washington where he delivered his famous I Have A Dream speech, and the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery across the Edmund Pettis bridge. His books, particularly Why We Can’t Wait (King, 1964) which contains the famous letter from a Birmingham jail, are inspirational. Click here to watch a short film titled MLK (Why We Can’t Wait).

His memory and his voice continue to infuse our youth with power as they set out to realize King’s vision of true equality for all peoples. Click here to watch a MLK Feature Film – Our Voices (Youth Leadership) of young people having conversations with state and local officials in education, economics, civics, and policing – all areas identified by Dr. King as crucial areas of change.

In 1961, Dr. King visited Oregon and in a speech in Portland attended by more than 3500 people at the civic auditorium declared “we must find a way to live together or perish as fools.” Click here to read an article about this speech.

For King, living together meant doing so with true equality and justice in the forefront. On this Dr. Martin Luther King day, we hope that you will learn more or raise your voice for true equality in both Ashland and our nation.

https://www.ashland.or.us/news.asp?newsID=5447