Is it Illegal to talk (write, or read)about Martin Luther King Jr.?

On the holiday for Martin Luther King Jr.?

The Silence of the good people is more dangerous than the brutality of the bad people.

Martin Luther King

For those who don’t know, in the United States, January 17 is a federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. It is a day in which we should reflect on a great man who dedicated and lost his life to better others. There are many other writers who have listed his accomplishments more eloquently than I can and I am sure everyone knows his name.

In states like Georgia, where I live, and in many others we are seeing bills introduced seeking to ban books and the ability to teach about racism and slavery in schools. Some parents and politicians in these states do not want us to talk about or read about heroes like Martin Luther King. They claim we are teaching our children they should be ashamed of what we did in our history.

Well damn right we should.

I remember growing up and learning what a disgrace it was that Russians (communists) told their citizens propaganda about what they were doing and how we would never do that. Of course, I am grown up now and have learned we also kept many things that the government did from the citizens.

It may seem that I have gone off track, maybe I did. But this is all related. There is a progression to how we got to where we may have any reference to Martin Luther King removed from many states school and public libraries. It goes like this:

Barack Obama was elected President to his first term.

Barack Obama was elected to his second term.

Trump was elected president.

Public racism grew to some of the greatest heights we have seen in our country.

Black Lives Matters protests happened nationwide and Black authors became very public figures.

A few examples are:

Legislation has been introduced to ban Critical Race Theory and books and teaching on racism, slavery, etc. in schools throughout the country. Fifteen states have already passed legislation that restricts what teachers can teach about “racism, sexism, and other controversial topics.”

An NPR article pointed to a Tennessee group: “In Tennessee, a local chapter of Moms For Liberty (MFL) deemed a number of books as inappropriate for second graders, including Martin Luther King, Jr and the March on Washington and the picture book Ruby Bridges Goes to School, about the six year old who became the first African American to integrate an all-white school in New Orleans.”

In Texas last year the Governor signed a bill that included a requirement for teachers to include teaching about Martin Luther King Jr., and other historic figures, without explanation of how to do so, since the law primarily does not allow discussions of racism.

For these reasons and many more, we need to spend the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday taking action to fight back against this whitewashing of our history. Book banning is bad, we can’t go back and unlearn the history of racism in our country. This country can’t heal until we face our history and learn how to live together equally.

What can you do?

The Authors Guild has coordinated some resources and is asking people to write letters to school boards, libraries, and local representatives, op-eds.

Attend your school board and local government meetings. Vote in all local elections.

If you live in a state that has started banning books on race, consider sharing books yourself. Start a crowdsourced fundraiser to build little free libraries in your area and pack them with these books. Talk about anti-racism as often as you can with others.

Our right to speech is still in the constitution, use it.

Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly.

Martin Luther King Jr.