'What are you doing for others?' is focus of Mansfield City Schools' MLK Jr. Day program

The legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will be celebrated Monday across the United States after what should have been his 93rd birth weekend.

Instead, the life of the civil rights leader was stolen just one day after his prophetic "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech in which he admitted he was unsure "what would happen to me from some of our sick white brothers."

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The federal holiday honoring King has been observed the third Monday of January since 1986.

His was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for his battle against racial inequality through nonviolent resistance.

"Like anybody, I would like to live a long life," King said the day before his assassination. "Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land."

'We are one community'

Students from Mansfield City Schools will honor King on Monday with their annual MLK, Jr. Day program.

This year, though, the event will be held virtually for the second year in a row due to the dramatic rise in COVID cases in Richland County, according to Stan Jefferson, the district's superintendent.

"We would love for it to be in person, but we're concerned about the transmission rate of COVID," Jefferson said "Two years ago in January 2020 we had it live, and it was absolutely outstanding, but that was pre-COVID."

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The celebration begins 9 a.m. Monday and will last until about 10:30 a.m.

"The theme is 'We are one community,'" Jefferson said. "There is an emphasis on the last five letters, UNITY."

The program will be recorded and live-streamed on the district's YouTube channel and a link will be available on the district's Facebook page.

'What are you doing for others?'

Everyone from the community is invited to watch as students from both the Mansfield school district and OSU-Mansfield sing songs, dance and deliver speeches.

"We want people to showcase their talents and celebrate the day," Jefferson said.

The superintendent has asked students to focus on a quote delivered by King in 1957 to an audience in Alabama: "Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'"

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"So what are we doing for others?" Jefferson asked. "I think that that is critical. We should all be asking one another."

He hopes students and staff will reflect on their lives and make sure they are serving others, giving kind words, performing empathetic gestures and offering a helping hand.

"The theme of it is the educational blueprint of our children, and our children are the key to making our great communities as we proceed forward," Jefferson said. "When we talk about that term 'pay it forward,' you can never pay back, but we can always pay forward."

He also wants everyone to realize that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed underlying inequalities in the community and that social justice is just as critical now as ever.

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"There's going to be a lot of passion that day," Jefferson said. "There's a lot of passion for our community."

Leader in racial equality

According to the King Center's website, "during the less than 13 years of King's leadership of the modern American Civil Rights Movement, from December 1955 until April 4, 1968, African Americans achieved more genuine progress toward racial equality in America than the previous 350 years had produced."

He is considered one of the greatest nonviolent leaders in world history.

"Drawing inspiration from both his Christian faith and the peaceful teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. King led a nonviolent movement in the late 1950s and '60s to achieve legal equality for African Americans in the United States," the website explains. "While others were advocating for freedom by 'any means necessary,' including violence, Martin Luther King, Jr. used the power of words and acts of nonviolent resistance, such as protests, grassroots organizing, and civil disobedience to achieve seemingly impossible goals. He went on to lead similar campaigns against poverty and international conflict, always maintaining fidelity to his principles that men and women everywhere, regardless of color or creed, are equal members of the human family."

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This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Mansfield Schools' MLK Jr. Day program to highlight service to others