January 17th is so much more than a day that we get off or a day spent stressing and worrying about the next day’s tests and quizzes. On January 17th, the nation celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. Day. On January 13th, NDP honors the day and King with a prayer service. Honoring this revolutionary leader and his many important contributions to our world and history are extremely important. He inspired the nation then, and he continues to inspire us to this very day. From the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 to the March on Washington in 1963, he played an important role in ending legal segregation in the United States and inspired so many to continue the work, even after he passed away.  

After all that Martin Luther King Jr. has done, we remember one thing from his life more than anything: his “I Have a Dream” Speech. On August 28, 1963, over 200,000 people of all colors came to Washington for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Lead by King, they walked the Lincoln Memorial, and he delivered his famous speech. One hundred years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, hundreds of thousands of people gathered together to try  to change their nation for the better once again. These people, from all different walks of life, stood there and listened as he talked about the nation that everyone hoped for. During this speech, King declared, “I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. I have a dream that one day out in the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; that one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be engulfed, every hill shall be exalted, and every mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.” His dream and the dream of all Americans and everyone in the world is still in the process, but we can continue to work for it.  

From Georgia to NDP, here on Hampton Lane, we are working to achieve this great man’s, and that of the rest of the nation who followed him to those steps over a hundred years ago, dream. MLK Day honors both Martin Luther King Jr., who inspires us to change the world, and the dream that we are all striving to achieve.  

King Jr., Martin Luther. “Martin Luther King Jr.: I Have a Dream Speech.” 
     U.S. Embassy & Consulate in the Republic of Korea, U.S. Embassy, 28 Aug. 
     1963, kr.usembassy.gov/education-culture/infopedia-usa/ 
     living-documents-american-history-democracy/ 
     martin-luther-king-jr-dream-speech-1963/. Accessed 16 Dec. 2021.