Martin Luther King showed the power of allies and institutions

As I visit our schools, I see representations of Dr. King throughout. Posters and biographies are present in our elementary schools. Dr. King was a prolific writer, scholar, tireless activist, and unshakeable voice for justice.

Each successive year we honor Dr. King should widen, not narrow, our understanding of this icon of the civil rights movement. As a history teacher, I well understand how the opposite can occur—how great figures of the past can be reduced to iconic moments, which can have the effect of weakening our understanding of the times in which they lived.

With a wider legacy in mind, I would ask all of us this week to reflect on an important aspect of Dr. King: the allies and institutions he led and worked with. The list is impressive and reveals more, not less, about the leader of the civil rights movement.

The Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), the local branches of the NAACP, and others were all organizations without which the work of Dr. King would never have grown. In these collective efforts, Dr. King forged bonds with Rosa Parks, Fred Shuttlesworth, Ralph Abernathy, and many others. By exploring these connections, we gain a deeper understanding of these figures, who are too often overlooked or reduced to one-dimensional moments in history.

Take, for example, the broader history of Rosa Parks: long before she emerged on the national stage, she undertook dangerous and grueling work supporting women who were victims of racial violence, seeking truth and justice for those ignored by the Jim Crow South.

I leave us all with this challenge: read more about this remarkable American and seek out the powerful stories of other allies of MLK, Shuttlesworth, and Abernathy—stories of courage, perseverance, organizing, and solidarity. Perhaps, in our own humble way, we can work in service of our students and families by forging teams and making our own organization better. I hope you can join me at the city’s annual MLK event on Sunday, January 19, titled Bridging Divides: The Legacy of Hope where I especially look forward to our students’ contributions to the MLK Essay Contest.