Celebrating Martin Luther King, Jr.

By Sarah Hester
When I was in high school I read the Letter from Birmingham Jail seven times in different classes. Every time, I was fascinated that the deep hope and faith of a man who constantly faced oppression and inequality had the power to completely change the future of America. What a lot of people forget is that there was an entire army of people behind him, using their suffering to fuel their fight against injustice. It never would have been possible without the thousands who rode buses, crossed bridges, sat at counters, and protested peacefully for their basic human rights. MLK was a human just like me and you – full of flaws and mistakes – but what put him in our history books and our holidays was his refusal to stay silent about the things that matter.