Martin Luther King, Jr. National Day 2020

The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Westchester County Memorial, White Plains, NY.

Note: The 12-foot statue of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) with left arm raised and a bible under his right arm was created by Milton L. Sherrill, a Mount Vernon, NY artist and cost approximately $500,000 to create. It was unveiled in front of the Westchester County Courthouse on 12 April 2007 to commemorate the life of this great civil rights leader and humanitarian who dreamed of a world at peace where all of God’s children got along as brothers and sisters. The base of the statue features a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that was penned while unjustly and wrongfully incarcerated at the Birmingham Jail in 1963 for his peaceful protests against racial discrimination – “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

I conclude on this national holiday to commemorate his life with an excerpt from his 28 August 1963 “I have a Dream” speech that remains as relevant as ever:

I have a dream that one day… little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers… I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain and the crooked places will be made straight. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together… This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing, “Free at last! Free at last!”