I commend whoever made the decision to designate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day a national day of service. Dedicating some time to our communities seems a worthy way to honor the legacy of a man who dedicated his life to justice and equality. For the past several years, I have tried to get us organized to engage in some kind of service project on MLK Day, and this year, I managed to get the three of us, my husband, son and me, signed up with DC Cares to do some painting at a community center in the North Capital Street Neighborhood.
We rousted our fifteen year old out of bed in time to leave at 8:30 and headed downtown. We joined a group of approximately twenty other volunteers at the Perry School, a building built in 1891 that is now used as a community service center that also houses a number of social service organizations including LIFT which is where we worked. As the LIFT representative explained to us, LIFT is a non-profit organization that helps low-income people to obtain employment, housing, education, and health-care. While they recognize that the causes of poverty are complex, they believe that “getting help should not have to be.” The most interesting aspect of this organization, however, is that the counseling is provided by trained college volunteers. In this way LIFT aims not just to assist the individuals who seek their services, but also to give their volunteers “a transformative experience” through their work with their clients. This experience “pushes volunteers to grapple with our country's most challenging issues related to poverty, race, inequality, and policy” and they go on ‘to pursue careers across all sectors and become lifelong leaders in the effort to improve the practices and policies that aim to eliminate poverty.” So the organization impacts the fight against poverty in two ways: by helping needy individuals and families and by creating foot soldiers and hopefully colonels and generals to serve in that crusade.
We spent four hours painting the walls of LIFT’s offices in pale gray, orange, and blue. The experience was in many ways quite similar to the painting the senior class did on their retreat day last fall at the Ferebee-Hope Elementary School in Southeast. LIFT had just moved into these offices and it was fun to watch the space transformed by fresh paint. My husband, who at times in his life has had his own contracting firm, quickly assumed responsibility for organizing the work and making sure that it was done on a level at least somewhat close to his exacting standards, ones much higher than the DC Cares folks probably expected. We had to sand the spackling to smooth out the walls; we had to take the plates off the outlets and the data lines; we had to tape with exactitude. Fortunately, another man taught our son how to use a roller so he actually listened. My husband has a way of asserting himself that feels helpful, not intrusive, and while the resulting paint job fell far short of his standards, it was still much better than it would have been without him. We and one other man stayed well past the ending time to wash brushes, clean buckets, and organize supplies. As we walked out, my husband thanked my son for staying (he was pretty hungry by that time) and explained that you always stay and clean up (a lesson maybe he could apply to his room).
As we discussed our experience over lunch, we agreed that while it was rewarding, we would prefer to do something that had a more direct impact on people in need. As LIFT reports, more than 46 million Americans or one in six, live below the poverty line. Painting the offices of an organization that helps address this national problem has some value, but we honestly had to wonder why the LIFT volunteers didn’t paint their own office. Perhaps we should have stayed home and helped the sixty odd Lower Schoolers and their families and friends who made sandwiches for Martha’s Table. Anyway, I plan to actively seek out some opportunities for us where we will have a more direct impact on people in need.
We tend to think of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as a civil rights leader who led the fight against racism. But we also know that he extended his message and moral authority beyond the plight of black Americans to address other inequalities and to oppose the Vietnam War. He was, of course, in Memphis where he was assassinated to support a sanitation workers’ strike. While the majority of the sanitation workers were black, the cause was about economic justice as much as race. We have made enormous progress in eliminating the de jure racism that ignited the early stages of the civil rights movement. We have also vastly expanded the opportunities for black Americans, progress most obviously symbolized by the election of a black president, an event many people – black and white – never expected to see in their lifetimes. Nonetheless, significant inequities based on race still exist: disproportionate percentages of African-Americans live in poverty, are unemployed and incarcerated, and on average African-Americans score lower than other ethnic groups on standardized tests including the SAT. Other groups continue to experience the injustice of prejudice, and some, such as Muslims, we’ve added since King’s time. We also know that the middle class is shrinking and the gap between the richest Americans and the rest of populace has widened significantly in the last several decades. It is this disparity, at least in part, that fuels the “occupy” protests. And then there is the persistence of sexism that manifests itself in so many ways.
So King’s work is not finished. He challenged white America to live up to the promise of the Declaration of Independence that “all men are created equal,” and as Americans we all have an obligation to continue to strive for that ideal.
One of the many benefits of working in a school is that we live everyday with the idealism of youth. While we might think this promise of equality an unrealistic dream, many of our students do not. Last week, the faculty were fortunate to take part in a meeting run by eight of our students who attended the National Association of Schools Student Diversity Leadership Conference. All of our girls served as student facilitators at this conference that includes over 1500 student participants from independent schools around the country. The conference, which runs parallel to the adult People of Color Conference, gives students from different backgrounds an opportunity to interact with one another, share experiences, learn more about issues related to diversity, and develop action plans to make their schools more inclusive communities. I want you to pause for a minute and contemplate the fact that these sophomores and juniors lead a meeting of their teachers around race, gender, sexual orientation, and discrimination, very sensitive topics. Their leadership raised our awareness about a number of issues we haven’t fully addressed but should. Numerous faculty have commented on what a terrific meeting it was and what an outstanding job our students did helping the adults to talk about important but hard questions. Like the founders of LIFT and their college volunteer staff, these amazing, powerful, compassionate girls are carrying on King’s work; they inspire the adults in their lives to do the same.
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