Honoring Martin Luther King Day

As we celebrate Martin Luther King Day this week, the library has set up an important display on our front shelves in his honor. I was collecting books to set out, and came across a kid's book called, We Shall Overcome: The Story of a Song. It is a wonderful book, with beautiful collage illustrations that traces the song's roots back to the days of slavery when enslaved people sang to soothe the hurt of their circumstances. The book continues through time using the lyrics that built strength in the people who dreamt of equality and who believed change in the world was possible.

The author includes the March on Washington from 1963. The illustration has an array of people from different backgrounds, holding hands in front of the Lincoln Memorial where Martin Luther King delivered his iconic speech, I Have a Dream.

Before the end of the book, where there is a timeline explaining the life of the song not only in America, but around the world as well, the author finishes with these words;

'We still sing.

We sing to declare that –yes!- we are all human beings,

deserving of respect,

sharing the same planet,

the same future,

together.”

Thank you Dr. King. We Shall Overcome.