MLK Day Special Edition: Wellness Digest from the Natural Resources Agency
Message from California Volunteers
Friend,
As we honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I’m reminded of his powerful words in a sermon just months before his death. He said, “Everybody can be great because everybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve… You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.”
Dr. King’s words remind us greatness can be generated through service and love. On Martin Luther King, Jr Day, January 18, Californians throughout the state are encouraged to celebrate Dr. King’s life and legacy through A Day of Service. Most volunteer activities only require an hour or two, find an MLK service event near you.
2021 is presenting us with opportunities for greatness and a chance to bring communities together. Volunteering at your local food bank, being a virtual tutor, participating in tree planting campaigns, and choosing a career in public health are all ways to channel Dr. King’s spirit of service.
Dr. King once said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: ‘What are you doing for others?” Visit CaliforniansForAll.ca.gov and create your own plan to serve.
With gratitude,
Josh Fryday,
Chief Service Officer
California Volunteers, Office of the Governor
MLK Day Service Opportunities Portal
California Volunteers created a portal for Californians to find local service opportunities in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Join us, as we honor a civil rights leader who manifested some of America’s best values in his work by committing to a service opportunity.
California African American Museum’s (CAAM) 2021 MLK Day Celebrations
Celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day immersed in music, culture, and community. This year’s virtual festival highlights MLK’s dedication to labor and workers’ rights, and these movements’ continued importance today. Enjoy these vibrant programs and activities for all ages.
RSVP: https://caamuseum.org/programs/special-events/mlk-day-celebration-2021
Schedule of Events:
10:00 am
Musical Welcome from ICYOLA
Kick off CAAM’s MLK Day Celebration with members of the Inner City Youth Orchestra of Los Angeles (ICYOLA), the largest majority Black orchestra in America. Enjoy a beautiful rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” followed by a mellow set to ease you into the holiday.
11:00 am
King Study Group
Join the King Study Group to engage with King’s speech in support of Memphis Sanitation Workers. Delivered the day before he was assassinated in 1968, this speech is commonly known by the theme in its concluding paragraph: “I’ve been to the mountaintop.” The speech is most remembered for that chilling phrase, which foreshadowed his untimely death, but King’s true message was about economic power, workers’ rights, and the strengthening of Black institutions.
1:00 pm
Black Workers and Social Justice: From Memphis, 1968, to Today
The labor movement was—and remains—essential to the struggle for racial equity and civil rights. King’s final campaign was undertaken to support striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. Hear a distinguished panel discuss the struggle in Memphis, the right to strike, and Black labor’s role in the California economy and in today’s movement for social change. Panelists include Janel Bailey, Co-Executive Director of Organizing and Programs at the Los Angeles Black Worker Center; Steven Pitts, Associate Director emeritus of UC Berkeley Labor Center and host of the podcast, Black Work Talk; and sanitation worker Rodney Fowler Sr., Vice President District 5, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees District Council 36, and President, Local 127, San Diego. The panel will be moderated by CAAM’s History Curator, Susan D. Anderson.
2:30 pm
Family Story Time and Poetry Workshop
Close out the holiday with this family program celebrating MLK. Author Alice Faye Duncan will read excerpts from her children’s book, Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop: The Sanitation Strike of 1968, followed by a haiku writing workshop.