Hundreds of Washington-area residents and tourists congregated on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial Monday to honor Martin Luther King Jr., while thousands more celebrated MLK Day through volunteerism.
“We came to observe Martin Luther King’s holiday and honor him by being here with the whole family,” said Tsehave Henok, 50, an Alexandria resident who immigrated to the United States from East Africa in the 1980s.
Henok sat listening to a recitation of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech on the sun-splashed steps of the memorial Monday afternoon with his wife, two daughters, and celebrants from around the world.
King delivered his seminal remarks on freedom and racial equality on the same spot during the “March on Washington” political rally in August 1963.
Caroline Giraud, a 21-year-old native of Paris, said King’s words are taught in schools across her country and have influenced the fight for racial equality in Europe.
“It is a speech that is completely universal,” she said.
Henok’s daughter spoke about King after listening to the words of his famous address.
“I live in one of the most diverse counties in the country,” said Delina, a 16-year-old 11th-grader at Alexandria’s Edison High School. “Being able to be at school with some of my white friends and some of my other friends means a lot.”
The Lincoln Memorial event was just one of many ways local residents celebrated King’s life and message.
About 30,000 people participated in “Day of Service” events organized by D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty’s Office of Volunteerism, according to Fenty’s office. The nonprofit group Greater D.C. Cares organized roughly 3,000 people to prepare meals and improve classrooms for area students.
In Montgomery County, about 2,300 volunteers gathered at the Bethesda Marriott hotel to make sandwiches and assemble food packages for the area’s homeless.
“King’s message was applicable to all of us — every ethnicity, every group,” said Reed Dewey, director of the Montgomery County Volunteer Center.
At the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, retired Army Gen. Colin Powell spoke at a ceremony awarding U.S. citizenship to 81 immigrants in honor of what would have been King’s 81st birthday.
“Today we celebrate the life of Dr. King, [a life] of active citizenship,” Powell said, urging the newly naturalized to “pursue their dreams and take care of their new country.”
