WASHINGTON WATCH
It should not have been surprising that President Donald Trump had to be goaded by civil rights leaders into issuing a statement acknowledging Martin Luther King Day 2026. Nor was it surprising that the statement was only begrudgingly released when the day was almost over, said little about Dr King, and only appeared on the White House website, without the usual social media amplification.
This is because Mr. Trump and the movement he leads have sought to whitewash American history through the issuance of Executive Orders that tell schools and federal programmes to remove mention of the troubling aspects of our history and focus instead on glorious battles Americans have won, heroic leaders who fought them, and values they represented. I disagree with this approach which is akin to behaving like ostriches and burying our heads in the sand to ignore both the troubling aspects of our past and present. Years ago, I was honored to serve as an appointed member of Washington DC’s Martin Luther King’s Holiday Commission. My mission was to ensure that the day serve to remind future generations of the struggles led by Dr King and so many others against the injustices that have defined our history as a nation.
That movement secured voting rights for disenfranchised African Americans who, 100 years after the official end of slavery in the USA, were still the victims of severe discrimination. This same civil rights movement also led to abolition of segregation, a system of law and practice that had divided the USA into two distinct worlds, one black and one white. Generations of Americans do not realize that just 60 years ago, in many parts of our country, African Americans could not buy property, do business, reside, attend school, among other things, in ‘“white-only’ neighborhoods. The struggle, led by Dr King, to break down these barriers of racial separation in housing, employment, education and public accommodations was a difficult one.
Though non-violent, it was met with violence. Thousands of protesters were arrested or beaten. Many lost their lives. In the end, it was this movement that won and forever changed the face of the USA. Still, the work was not done. While legal segregation ended, the legacy of racial division continued to haunt the USA.
For example, as late as 1964, property deeds in my neighborhood in northwest Washington included a “covenant” that prohibited the sale of that property to African Americans. Black families who were living in this ‘white- only’ section were ordered evicted and their properties were taken and razed to make way for the construction of all-white schools. Even after those covenants were declared null and void, by legislation passed in response to the King-led civil rights movement, Washington, D.C., the United States’ capital city, remained an extraordinarily divided city. And accompanying that physical division were significant differences in income, infrastructure, services and opportunities— that continue to plague this city.
This was not only the story of Washington. It was replicated across the USA and was much worse in the deep South where African Americans lived under an apartheid-like system of imposed racial segregation. There were restaurants where Blacks couldn’t eat and hotels where they couldn’t stay. Restrooms and water fountains were designated ‘white-only’ or ‘colored.’ Even public transport was segregated between ‘white’ and ‘colored’ seating.
The way to honor King Day should be to remember the world into which he came, the injustices against which he fought, and the lessons he taught, and to apply these lessons to the challenges we face today: defending immigrants, defending voting rights, and challenging indiscriminate violence by local and federal law enforcement. In other words, doing what Dr King would be doing.
This was the system, in both the north and south, that was challenged and partially defeated by the movement Dr King helped to lead. On King Day, we should not only honour the heroic effort of those who built this movement, but we must remember the reality they were fighting to dismantle and change— and the lasting impact this system continues to have today.
The danger, of course, is that this history is either not known or its importance has been dismissed or forgotten. Less than one-quarter of today’s Americans were alive during the period of segregation. And almost from the day when President Ronald Reagan signed the bill that established MLK Day, King was transformed from a heroic fighter for civil rights, liberties, and immigrant rights, and against war, militarism and economic injustice, into an unrecognizable fuzzy feel-good figure. President William Clinton contributed to this dilution of the meaning of the day by declaring it a day of public service— cleaning up playgrounds and public service, providing meals for the poor, and so on. As Rev. Jesse Jackson predicted, “We might win and get this holiday and live to see the day when the Dr King that politicians honor is not the Martin Luther King we knew.”
The way to honor King Day should be to remember the world into which he came, the injustices against which he fought, and the lessons he taught, and to apply these lessons to the challenges we face today: defending immigrants, defending voting rights, and challenging indiscriminate violence by local and federal law enforcement. In other words, doing what Dr King would be doing.
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By Dr James J Zogby – The writer is President, Arab American Institute.
