Celebrating iconic civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Aleksandra Bush and Felicia Bolton
WASHINGTON (NewsNation Now) — Communities around the country are celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day Monday, commemorating the iconic civil rights leader days after his birthday.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many events taking place have been modified, including the 40th annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Parade usually held in D.C. It took place virtually at 12 p.m. EST.
Black American civil rights leader Martin Luther King (1929 – 1968) addresses crowds during the March On Washington at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington DC, where he gave his ‘I Have A Dream’ speech. (Photo by Central Press/Getty Images)
Over 200,000 people gather around the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC, where the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom ended with Martin Luther King’s ‘I Have A Dream’ speech. (Photo by Kurt Severin/Three Lions/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
March 1965: American civil rights campaigner Martin Luther King (1929 – 1968) and his wife Coretta Scott King lead a black voting rights march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital in Montgomery; among those pictured are, front row, politician and civil rights activist John Lewis (1940 – 2020), Reverend Ralph Abernathy (1926 – 1990), Ruth Harris Bunche (1906 – 1988), Nobel Prize-winning political scientist and diplomat Ralph Bunche (1904 – 1971), activist Hosea Williams (1926 – 2000). (Photo by William Lovelace/Express/Getty Images)
March 1965: Civil rights campaigner Dr Martin Luther King (1929 – 1968) with his wife Coretta Scott King, at a black voting rights march from Selma, Alabama, to the state capital in Montgomery. (Photo by William Lovelace/Express/Getty Images)
African Americans marching on the corner of 16th Street and 5th Avenue in Birmingham, Alabama, at the start of the Birmingham Campaign, May 1963. The movement, which called for the integration of African Americans in schools, was organized by Martin Luther King Jr. and Fred Shuttlesworth amongst others. (Photo by Frank Rockstroh/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Civil rights activists Martin Luther King Jr. (1929 – 1968, left) and Fred Shuttlesworth (1922 – 2011, right) hold a rally at a church in Birmingham, Alabama, 14th October 1963. (Photo by Frank Rockstroh/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
28th August 1963: American president John F. Kennedy in the White House with leaders of the civil rights ‘March on Washington’ (left to right) Dr Martin Luther King (1929 – 1968), John Lewis, Rabbi Joachim Prinz, A. Philip Randolph, President Kennedy, Walter Reuther (1907 – 1970) and Roy Wilkins. Behind Reuther is Vice-President Lyndon Johnson. (Photo by Three Lions/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
OSLO, NORWAY: Coretta Scott King and her husband Martin Luther King 09 December 1964 in Oslo where the US clergyman and civil rights leader received 10 December the Nobel Peace Prize. Martin Luther King was assassinated on 04 April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray confessed to shooting King and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. King’s killing sent shock waves through American society at the time, and is still regarded as a landmark event in recent US history. (Photo credit should read AFP via Getty Images)
(FILES) Two mules pull a cart carrying the coffin of the US clergyman, leader of the Movement against Racial Segregation and Nobel Peace Prize winner Martin Luther King during his funeral 09 April 1968 in Atlanta. Martin Luther King was assassinated on 04 April 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. James Earl Ray confessed to shooting King and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. King’s killing sent shock waves through American society at the time, and is still regarded as a landmark event in recent US history. (Photo by – / AFP FILES / AFP) (Photo credit should read -/AFP via Getty Images)
9th April 1968: Clergyman and civil rights leader Ralph Abernathy (1926 – 1990) presides over the funeral of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King (1929 – 1968), Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta, Georgia. King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, sits with their children near his casket in the front row. (Photo by Keystone/Getty Images)
Screen capture shows American Civil Rights activist Coretta Scott King (1927 – 2006) at the televised funeral of her husband, Civil Rights and religious leader Martin Luther King Jr., which was held at Ebenezer Church on the campus of Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia, April 9, 1968. King was assassinated 5 days previously, on April 4. (Photo by CBS Photo Archive/Getty Images)
The army are called out to 14th Street in Columbia Heights during riots in Washington, DC, following the assassination of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., April 1968. In the background is the Tivoli Theatre. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
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President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, like many others, are honoring Dr. King by volunteering Monday. The Presidential Inaugural Committee is hosting two events. The first is a National Day of Service, followed by an hour-long celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Biden and his wife Jill joined an assembly line Monday in the parking lot of Philabundance, an organization that distributes food to people in need, and helped fill about 150 boxes with fresh fruit and non-perishables.
Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, were scheduled to take part in the National Day of Service event in Washington. Harris was set to resign her Senate seat Monday afternoon.
President Donald Trump does not have any public events scheduled, so far.
In Atlanta, speakers at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. holiday celebration called Monday for a renewed dedication to nonviolence following a turbulent year in which a deadly pandemic, protests over systemic racism and a divisive election capped by an attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“This King holiday has not only come at a time of great peril and physical violence, it has also come during a time of violence in our speech — what we say and how we say it,” said the Rev. Bernice King, the slain civil rights leader’s daughter. “It is frankly out of control and we are causing too much harm to one another.”
Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, while supporting striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. Had he lived, he would have turned 92 on his birthday last Friday.
