Happy Birthday Dr. King

Sheri and I happened upon a unique documentary about the life of Martin Luther King, Jr the other night - focusing in large part on stories shared by his civil rights friends and compatriots... those closest to him. It was a moving piece, combining personal stories with powerful pictures & statistics, serving as a reminder of why our nation honors Dr. King on this day.

The AP released a story this morning describing time's effect on our perception of historical figures, often reducing a complex man or woman down to a single ideal or quote... so I encourage you to take a few minutes out of your holiday (for those who get to celebrate it) for a Dr. King refresher course. The first link is to the AP article on not losing sight of Dr. King's complexity, the second link is to Wikipedia, which including some juicy tidbits on the holiday itself, namely Arizona's reluctance to trade Columbus Day for MLK Day, and Public Enemy's lyrical threat to assassinate governor Fife... just what MLK would have wanted! I actually remember the coverage of Proposition 300 back in the early 90's to make MLK day official for Arizonans too, what I don't remember is that it was threats of tourism boycotts that motivated voters to give a thumbs up (sad).

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/US/01/21/mlk.legacy.ap/index.html (eroding complexity)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Luther_King_Day (MLK day - not right away)

Getting reaquainted with the Civil Rights Movement has reminded me of an incredibly powerful movie I saw when I was in the 7th grade starring Sidney Poitier called 'Separate But Equal' - does anyone else remember seeing the film? You know it's good when you have to get your parents to sign the permission slip to see it! (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/separate_but_equal/)

For the lawyer who reads my blog, we would be remiss were we not to give some MLK Day props to Chief Justice Earl Warren, one of the many people instrumental in our country's racial maturation (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Warren).