As communities across the country on Monday hosted parades, panels and service projects for the 40th federal observation of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the current climate for some is fraught with tension in the midst of reflections on the slain Black American civil rights icon's legacy.
Urgent calls to unite against injustice were interspersed with energetic gospel at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where King preached. That sense of urgency infused the comments by many speakers there Monday.
U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat and Ebenezer's senior pastor, invoked a story about King fighting for the Voting Rights Act after Congress passed the Civil Rights Act. He urged the crowd to keep pushing against what he described as attempts to sow division.
"They are trying to weaponize despair and convince us that we are at war with one another," Warnock said.
Still, the concerns have not chilled many King holiday events held Monday. Some conservative admirers of King say the holiday should be a reminder of the civil rights icon's plea that all people be judged by their character and not their skin color.
"I think the Civil Rights Movement was one of the things that made our country so unique, that we haven't always been perfect, but we've always strived to be this more perfect union, and that's what I think the Civil Rights Movement represents," Gov. Wes Moore, Maryland's first Black governor and only the nation's third elected Black governor, said this week.
In Washington on Monday, hundreds of people marched along Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, braving cold weather to honor the civil rights leader. The parade began decades ago as part of the effort to establish a national holiday in King's honor.
Sam Ford, a retired broadcaster and member of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade Committee, helped bring the parade back in 2012.
The conservative Heritage Foundation think tank encouraged the holiday's focus to stay solely on King himself. Brenda Hafera, a foundation research fellow, urged people to visit the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park in Atlanta or reread his "I have a dream" speech delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington nearly 63 years ago.
In Memphis, Tennessee, the National Civil Rights Museum was going about its annual King Day celebration as normal. The museum is located on the site of the former Lorraine Motel, where King was shot on April 4, 1968. The museum offered free admission on the holiday, an annual tradition.
"This milestone year is not only about looking back at what Dr. King stood for, but also recognizing the people who continue to make his ideals real today," museum President Russell Wigginton said.