Fam,

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr. Day becoming a federal holiday. And 40 years after the federal government formally recognized his life and work, people are being beaten, tear-gassed, and killed in encounters tied to immigration enforcement. Access to jobs and justice — which King understood as a fundamental human right — is being stripped away through policy choices that disproportionately harm Black folks.

Dr. King’s legacy has too often been watered down into something safe, symbolic, and comfortably distant from the crises we are living through right now. But he was not asking this nation to be kind just for a day.

Dr. King famously said that “the arc of the moral universe bends toward justice,” but he also made clear that it does so only when people act. It bends because journalists document, communities organize, and we collectively insist on truth and justice, even when it’s inconvenient.

So let’s refuse to let symbolic celebration be a substitute for substantive change.

Best,

Liz Courquet-Lesaulnier

Managing Director