Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day brings me a rush of contradictory feelings — painful and joyous memories, gratitude and disappointments, and hopes and fears.
My most painful memories are of Dr. King’s assassination on April 4, 1968, when I was 8. My family and the entire Black community in my hometown of Kenner, Louisiana, were plunged into mourning as if a close relative had suddenly and tragically been gunned down.
I was scared and confused and cried myself to sleep. I resolved to carry on Dr. King’s work in any way I could when I grew up.
My most joyous memory associated with Dr. King came on Nov. 2, 1983, when President Ronald Reagan signed legislation creating Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a federal holiday on the third Monday in January, after originally opposing the measure
I was honored to have played a role in winning congressional approval of the holiday. The late Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., introduced legislation honoring the civil rights icon four days after King was murdered.
I joined the holiday campaign in 1981, soon after graduating from Louisiana State University. Working as a congressional intern, I got to know Rep. Conyers and many of the leaders in Congress who had championed this cause. I volunteered to be part of the effort.
In 1982, I served as mobilization director for a March on Washington in support of the creation of a King holiday and, as I wrote in my memoir “Cooking With Grease,” we estimated we brought out 150,000 people, exceeding all expectations.
The effort succeeded because of the work of elected officials, Dr. King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, civil rights leaders, labor unions, the religious community, students, allies from every race, and humanitarian activist and singer Stevie Wonder. He helped to revive the campaign with a popular song endorsing…
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