Meeting Martin

Bradley came home from school SO excited to tell me about Martin Luther King.

“Do you know Martin Luther King?”, he asked.

Before I could finish answering, “Yes”, he blurted out - “"I LOVE him because he made it so WHITE people can go to McDonald's TOO!"

I tried to contain the chuckle as I listened to him expound upon his “version” of his newfound knowledge.

He told me that only “Brown” people were “allowed” to sit in the back of a bus and how white people had to have their own drinking fountains.

I decided I better clarify a few details with him.

We talked about Martin Luther King, segregation, and the Civil Rights movement.

He looked at me with a suspicious “You are SO making this up, Mom” look on his face.

He couldn’t fathom our country existing this way.

I googled some images to show him actual photographs of a segregated America. He just couldn’t believe it.

He kept saying, “That was the olden days, though, right?”…as if time passed would make it less real.

“It was just the other day”, I said.

We continued talking about it – looking at a few more pictures.

He LOVED the Rosa Parks story – biggest smile.

We talked about standing up for what is right…no matter what the world thinks…and how when we take a stand – the world can change.

This experience, so innocently sweet, made me even more determined to make sure that Martin Luther King Day is celebrated correctly in our family. That it is not just a day off of school…or another day we wonder why the mail didn’t show up. It is a day of responsibility, as a mother, to teach my children so they can fully understand, appreciate, and value the meaning of “liberty and justice for all”.

From here on out, that special day will be dedicated to waking up early and finding a way to bless the life of someone else – the way MLK would have wanted.

Like Dr. King said, “Life's most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others’?'

It was a precious experience, witnessing my Kindergartener “meeting” Martin…and becoming friends.