Monday, January 15, 2024 marks the 41st MLK, Jr. Day, honoring the towering legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. Our own Baltimore City has a deep connection to Dr. King, who visited several times to deliver important public addresses, including 60 years ago on October 31, 1964 to help “get out the vote” just after winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
Even closer to home, The New Century School lives by much of what the Civil Rights giant made possible.
Dr. King dedicated his life to the nonviolent struggle for racial equality in the United States. His leadership was pivotal in ending entrenched segregation for African Americans and in creating the Civil Rights Act of 1964, considered a crowning achievement of the civil rights era.
Baltimore hosts several events observing Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. These events are a great way to honor King’s legacy, celebrate the progress that has been made in the fight for civil rights, engage in volunteer service, and connect with our communities.
Community Events
The Baltimore City Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr Parade wends its way down—you guessed it—MLK Blvd. and features marching bands, local colleges and universities, fraternities and sororities, and more.
The theme of the 42nd Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration hosted by Johns Hopkins University is “Where Do We Go from Here—Chaos or Community?” The program will be livestreamed and is based on Dr. King’s final book. The keynote will be given by Mae Jemison, an engineer, physician, and former NASA astronaut as well as the first African American woman to travel in space. (TNCS students know her well.)
Museums
At King Day at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture, experience Martin Luther King Jr. and Maryland’s Year of Civil Rights through art, music, and storytelling; hear a choral performance by the Carter Legacy Singers; learn about the Montgomery Bus Boycott from Deborah Pierce-Fakunle and Dr. David Fakunle, mother-and-son storytellers known as Dr. Mama; immerse yourself in “I Am A Man,” a virtual reality program; and explore the Memphis Sanitation Workers protest. Admission is free to this monumental event.
Visit the MLK Jr Day Celebration by Unique Johnson at The Walters Art Museum, an event that will explore Dr. King’s legacy through poetry and music, and is free to attend (with required registration at the link above).
Celebrate “one of history’s greatest visionaries” (see what they did there?) at MLK Dare to Dream Day at the American Visionary Arts Museum (AVAM). Admission is free on Monday, allowing you to tour the museum as well as enjoy live music and dancing performances, open mic, a poetry slam, and more.
The B&O Railroad Museum invites you to experience the fusion of music and history on hallowed grounds, presenting Wordsmith and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in tribute to Dr. King. An original song and composition directly inspired by the powerful narratives found in the B&O Railroad Museum’s Underground Railroad exhibit will be debuted. (The Museum was designated a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Site in 2021 and opened a permanent exhibit, The Underground Railroad: Freedom Seekers on the B&O Railroad, in 2022.) Tickets are free!
Service Opportunities
Volunteer at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service, organized by the United Way of Central Maryland. Service opportunities include efforts to address high-impact issues affecting Marylanders, from housing and mental health to food access and transportation. Both in-person and virtual projects are available, including building bicycles, creating gardening beds, and packing hygiene kits.
How will you observe this great day honoring a great man?
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