Like anybody here on campus, I indulge in a day off from school. I love lounging around, eating what I want, and pretending I don’t have homework. But in the midst of all this relaxation, how often do we actually consider why we have a break off from school to begin with? Let’s take the most recent example. What were you doing this past Monday?
If your answer is watching TV or sleeping in, you did indeed forget why we take this day off in the first place. Every second Monday in January is the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service.
All over the country, millions participate in community service events remembering a man who sought racial tolerance in one of the most hostile times in American history.
And 43 years later, Dr. King’s legacy continues to endure here at UNC as well.
Just look at our own campus. People of color constitute almost 25 percent of the University’s undergraduate student body. That’s roughly 5,000 people. And more than 78 organizations on campus today identify as being a cultural organization.
Just 55 years ago, UNC didn’t allow minority students to attend. But with the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement, black students started to advocate for their civil rights. Less than a year before Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated from his hotel balcony in Memphis, the Black Student Movement was established.
In its first successful mission, it drafted a list of 22 demands seeking a more progressive academic atmosphere for black students and presented it to former Chancellor J. Carlyle Sitterson.
In 1964, two black students successfully protested the segregation of public facilities on Franklin Street. And less than a year later, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, ending public segregation for good.
Monday wasn’t meant to be just another day off from school. We were meant to celebrate (or at least acknowledge) the birth of the greatest civil rights leader of our time. Maybe I’m being overzealous because Dr. King’s legacy and his successes affect me personally.
