Celebrating MLK Day in the Comfort of My Own Home
The morning of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, I began to wonder what we could do to celebrate the slain civil rights activist.
So I did what I always do when I have a question. I went to Google. After finding no kid-friendly events in the surrounding area, I saw that the library was scheduled to have their storybook time for toddlers. That’s where someone on staff reads a few books to a room full of tots and often adds a song or two.
Surely, surely they’ll have a storybook time that’s somehow tied to MLK day.
We piled in the car, puffy coats, gloves, hats, snow boots and all. On the way to the library, we talked about King. It wasn’t our first conversation about him. When Logan was a baby I stumbled across a great children’s book called The Story of Martin Luther King Jr. by Johnny Ray Moore. We’ve read that many times and have used it as a jumping off point for discussions.
This day, when I asked him if he remembered me talking about Martin Luther King, Jr. He said flatly: “No.”
OK. I start talking about how King was this man who pushed for people to be nice to each other no matter what. Before I can go much deeper, we’re at the library.
We head to the children’s section for story time. There’s a story about a mitten. Then a wool coat. There’s no mention of Martin Luther King, Jr. I start to realize that the only thing that has to do with any brown person during this story time is me, sitting there. I was disappointed, but was glad the kids enjoyed themselves.
I was sure there’d be a MLK display of some sort at the library, one that I probably missed in my rush to make it to story time. When I asked one of the librarians if they had an MLK display, she pointed to a lonely shelf with about five books on it.
My heart sank. I’m not sure what kind of face I made, I just know that the librarian quickly, apologetically and stammeringly explained how there were more books before, but that most of them had been checked out already. She started to say something else but then stopped. I think she too realized how pathetic she sounded.
I grumbled that I would just reread the books that we’ve got at home.
On our way home, I started talking about King again, how he was a preacher, how he wanted everyone to be treated fairly, the March on Washington and how he won the Nobel Peace Prize (Logan learned about the peace prize when we were in Norway.)
Each night, we read a book before going to bed and it was clear to me what tonight’s book would be. We read the book and I thought it’d be neat to watch some of his “I Have A Dream” speech, so I pulled out my KindleFire and we snuggled up and watched the black and white footage of that historic day in 1963.
It was a little surreal. Using something so hi-tech to give my kid a front row seat to history.
I realized I didn’t need the library to have something on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. I had all that I needed in the comfort of my own home.
Maybe all the books were checked out? Betcha they have a few MLK Jr. books in the collection. So it’s good that they were checked out.
Wonder if they read books about presidents on President’s Day? Maybe it was nothing more than that and not a diss on MLK. Just sayin’.
Thanks for your comment! 🙂 You’re right, the librarian told me a lot of the MLK books were already checked out, which is great! People need to be more educated. I didn’t take your comment as a diss on MLK, but yes, there are books set out on display on President’s Day, same with Columbus Day and Halloween. However, I was disappointed that there wasn’t an exhibit-like display which is usual for the libraries I’ve frequented. Though budgets have agencies like public libraries strapped for cash, it wouldn’t have taken much to have something visual set up, a poster or picture or a sign or something. This was just a sad looking shelf. Nevertheless, it all worked out fine, I was simply hoping for more since my library is usually quite fantastic.
What a cozy way of celebrating! I love it.
Dr. King is definitely top of my list of inspiring people that ever lived. His faith and absolute love gets me emotional every time.
My favorite speech of his is the Mountaintop speech. I think the history behind how it almost didn’t happen…And then when it did the prophetic words he would speak.
On a semi-similar note-
Malcom X is coming up a lot in schools, and I’m embarrassed to say I don’t really know anything about him. I know that he is revered by some and hated by others, but even when I researched him online I couldn’t find any useful information. That is one I’m going to have to look into.
Even with having a lot of books checked out you think they could’ve read one of the ones that they had there for story time, or had an extra that they keep around for story time each year. It does seem a little sad that it went mostly unacknowledged. It sounds like you did a great job on your own. I’m not sure if they had anything going on at our library, we don’t go to the library much.