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Martin Luther King, Jr. Day recognizes the birth of the civil rights leader who led marches and boycotts for equal rights in the Southern United States. It is celebrated the third Monday in January. His inspiring words and actions remind Americans everywhere to work for racial, economic, and international justice. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a national holiday enacted by Congress in 1983. In 1994, Congress named it as a day of service to the community in recognition of Dr. King’s service to the world community.

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Unitarian Universalist Perspectives

The Words of Martin Luther King, Jr

Beacon Press, a department of the Unitarian Universalist Association, has an exclusive agreement to partner with the Estate of Martin Luther King Jr. in a publishing program, "The King Legacy," which gives Beacon the sole right to print new editions of previously published King titles and to compile Dr. King's writings, sermons, orations, lectures, and prayers into entirely new editions, including significant new introductions by leading scholars.

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Displaying 1 - 10 of 12

  • MLK in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, August 28, 1963.
    We have come here today to remember what some are intent on making us forget.
    Affirmation | By Addae Ama Kraba | January 10, 2022 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: History, Justice, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, Race/Ethnicity, WorshipWeb, Worship
  • Ibram Kendi, holding a microphone, speaks to someone off camera.
    Ironically, Americans who self-identify as not racist—whether they're conservatives, moderates, liberals, radicals, progressives—they don't realize… that we are connecting ourselves to a history of slave traders who self-identified as not racist (although they didn't use that term). We're...
    Reading | By Ibram X Kendi | January 16, 2020 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 6th Principle (World Community), America, Anti-Oppression, Direct Experience, History, Identity, Juneteenth, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, Oppression, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity
  • As choir members clap in the background, a choir member sings into a microphone
    Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is a time when particular songs get sung; one of them is "Lift Every Voice and Sing." It gets sung in school, in church, and at various MLK day celebrations or over the course of Black History Month....
    Reflection | By Aisha Ansano | February 27, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), America, Anti-Oppression, Arts & Music, Black History / Whitney Young / James Reeb, Direct Experience, History, Juneteenth, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, Pain, Privilege, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity
  • Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking to a crowd in San Francisco on June 30, 1964. In this black-and-white photograph, the humidity of the evening has cause a beam of light to appear surrounding King, as he gestures from a lectern.
    The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a radical. He was called “the most dangerous man in America” by the FBI and had a 17,000 page FBI file at the time of his death. It wasn’t just KKK members or those in positions of power who disagreed with him or hated him. As Cornel West explains in...
    Reading | By Aisha Ansano | February 27, 2017 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 6th Principle (World Community), Activism, America, Anti-Oppression, Black History / Whitney Young / James Reeb, Direct Experience, History, Humanism, Justice, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, Multiculturalism, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity
  • In front of a crowd with signs, a woman raises her fist
    In the face of hate, We answer the call of love.
    Responsive Reading | By Julia Corbett-Hemeyer | December 7, 2016 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: Activism, Anti-Oppression, Commitment, Equity, Human Rights, Humanism, Indigenous Peoples Day, Justice, Justice Sunday, Living Our Faith, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, Multiculturalism, Pride Sunday, Secular, Seven Principles, Solidarity, Unitarian Universalism, United Nations Day, Vision
  • a man holding a megaphone at a Black Lives Matter protest in Memphis
    #‎BlackLivesMatter Let the only burning be the fire of commitment in our hearts, minds, hands, spirits in our community of faith. Live solidarity. Use your voice. Demand justice... better, live it into being. Cry out for others to join you. Name hate as hate—without shrinking back without...
    Poetry | By Jeannie Shero | August 11, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: #BlackLivesMatter, 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 6th Principle (World Community), 7th Principle (Interconnected Web), Anti-Oppression, Black History / Whitney Young / James Reeb, Change, Direct Experience, Honesty, Humanism, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, Oppression, Power, Privilege, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity, Solidarity, Unitarian Universalism
  • Unitarian Universalist Association Chalice
    The question is not, “What happens when we die?” Nobody really knows. The real question is, “What happens when we stop living?” The stoicism we face on a daily basis is a symptom of a larger illness called a dually-dulled life. Our lives can be hypnotized by the monotonous commutes,...
    Reading | By Nathan C. Walker | February 24, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 3rd Principle (Acceptance & Spiritual Growth), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), 5th Principle (Conscience & Democracy), Belief, Calling, Challenge, Change, Character, Direct Experience, Easter, Gratitude, Homecoming / Ingathering, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Respect, Trust, Unitarian Universalism, Worth, Yom Kippur
  • Unitarian Universalist Association Chalice
    This is adapted from a litany by Gail Forsyth-Vail, who suggests the following to maximize the reading's power: Identify seventeen people who will come forward to represent the generations of African Americans in the British colonies and in the United States. As you name the first generation,...
    Reading | By James (Jay) C Leach | January 29, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), 6th Principle (World Community), Anti-Oppression, Black History / Whitney Young / James Reeb, History, Humanism, Juneteenth, Justice, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity
  • Unitarian Universalist Association Chalice
    This reading requires seventeen people who are able to come forward and represent the generations of African Americans in the British colonies and in the United States. As you name the first generation, indicate to a person that they should stand. Each time you call a new generation, you indicate...
    Reading | By Gail Forsyth-Vail | January 29, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), 2nd Principle (Justice, Equity, & Compassion), 4th Principle (Truth & Meaning), 6th Principle (World Community), Anti-Oppression, Black History / Whitney Young / James Reeb, History, Humanism, Juneteenth, Justice, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, Prophetic Words & Deeds, Race/Ethnicity
  • Unitarian Universalist Association Chalice
    We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied to a single garment of destiny. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. There are some things in our social system to which all of us ought to be maladjusted....
    Reading | By Martin Luther King, Jr. | January 21, 2015 | From WorshipWeb
    Tagged as: 1st Principle (Worth & Dignity), Black History / Whitney Young / James Reeb, Interdependence, Juneteenth, Justice Sunday, Love, Martin Luther King, Jr. Sunday, Multiculturalism, Peace, Power