Celebrating the Life & Legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. – born 95 years ago today – had a long, close connection to Cleveland. He made more than a dozen visits to our city between 1956 and 1967, giving speeches at schools and sermons at churches, encouraging peace and activism over violence.

He also urged Clevelanders to register to vote. In the Cleveland mayoral race of 1967, he was supportive of State Rep. Carl Stokes in his bid to become the first Black mayor of a major American city.

On one visit in April 1967, Dr. King spoke at Glenville High School to an auditorium of mostly Black students. Amazingly, a recording of that speech was discovered by a teacher at the school in 2010, and one can hear Dr. King urging students to work hard and to participate in civic life, and, most importantly, to believe in their own worth, despite the racism and segregation they would endure.

In January 1968, Carl Stokes became Cleveland’s mayor, and many gave credit to Dr. King’s visits and his efforts to support voter registration. Later that year, Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis – just six days before his next scheduled visit to Cleveland.

Today, as we honor Dr. King’s memory, I am reminded of one of his powerful statements: “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and… inhumane."

It was, and it is.

That reprehensible history cannot be changed, but at University Hospitals , we work vigorously to do what is right for our diverse patient population and our community today, and to continue to create a more equitable health system.

We do this on many fronts, which include addressing cardiovascular health inequities in Cleveland’s Black communities in a collaboration that provides health services and risk screenings; providing? health and social services at the UH Rainbow Ahuja Center for Women & Children and our Otis Moss Jr. Health Center, which are located in underserved communities to make them accessible to more residents; offering mobile vans that provide mammograms and other screenings for those without access to transportation, as well as a mobile van that enables participation in clinical trials by people who would otherwise not be represented; and making available Food for Life Markets? around the region to mitigate food insecurity.

And last fall in the Glenville neighborhood, just two miles from the high school where Dr. King spoke to students, we opened a wellness center to enhance residents’ access to healthcare.

The Rev. King left us with so many memorable quotations, and powerful questions. He reminded us that “Life’s most sincere and urgent question is, “What are you doing for others?”

At UH, it is a question we answer with our actions and service every day, through the vision that guides us: Advancing the Science of Health and the Art of Compassion.

I want to express my sincere gratitude to our caregivers and all they do for others.