A Love Letter To Changemakers on this 40th Anniversary of the Observance of MLK Day
Today, January 19, 2026, marks the 40th anniversary of the first nationwide observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day (MLK Day) as a federal holiday.
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. with President Lyndon B. Johnson in the background March 18, 1966 at the White House. (Photo by National Archive/Newsmakers)
On this day each year, our social media feeds are flooded with clips and quotes that show a very palatable MLK.
✨ "If you can't fly, then run, if you can't run, then walk, if you can't walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.”
✨ “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
✨ “Faith is taking the first step even when you can’t see the whole staircase.”
I love those quotes as much as the next person. They are inspiring and keep us focused on the main things: hope, faith, love, community, and humanity.
However, some of my favorite clips and quotes are those that showed Dr. King's vulnerability and utter frustration in fighting for something that we never should have needed to fight for in the first place. It showed his weariness, the fact that he never wanted to be a martyr, but he was fighting for a better life for all people, including himself and his family.
1. It is a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps.
2. Sincerity and conscientiousness in themselves are not enough. Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
3. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.
4. There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him it is right.
5. We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.
6. "All we say to America is to be true to what you said on paper!
7. One of the greatest problems of history is that the concepts of love and power are usually contrasted as polar opposites. Love is identified with a resignation of power and power with a denial of love. What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.
Being a person of purpose and a change maker often requires vacillating between multiple realities and truths.
✨ We are hopeful, yet discouraged.
✨ We are determined, yet weary.
✨ We make progress, only to feel like the progress isn't enough or is met with opposition at every side.
These realities do not mean that we should give up, but it is a reminder to embrace our humanity, to implement rest as a practice, to stay in loving community and to give ourselves grace. Let’s all continue to do our part to keep the dream alive.