Reclaiming MLK Day of Service: From Perpetuating Harm to Honoring the Legacy

As a Black woman in the United States, I know how much Dr. Martin Luther King's legacy and my work mean to me. I've lived in Georgia my entire life, but moved to Atlanta 10 years ago to start graduate school at The Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State University. Aside from the history of the policy school's namesake, it's about five minutes from the iconic King Center, from Dr. King's birth home, and on the grounds where Civil Rights leaders marched, organized, collaborated and collectively pursued justice. I carry such pride to be in this space of legacy and truth-telling.

Unfortunately, as time continued to pass after my graduation and into my professional career, the infusion of Dr. King's life and MLK Day of Service started to look less and less connected to me.

As a volunteer mobilizer in the United States, I remember how much MLK Day used to bring me angst when I held volunteer coordinator, manager and director roles in the nonprofit sector for over a decade. Due to my many other responsibilities, I remember needing more resources to plan a day where hundreds of volunteers would come out and engage with our work. I remember juggling logistics, people, demands and requests, and I couldn't wait for the day just to be done. In the weeks leading up to the "event," I needed to come earlier and stay later. I was pushed to max out our volunteer slots, create as many opportunities as possible, or galvanize as many groups as I could to "get them in our doors." I was indirectly directed to churn out sob stories to encourage retention. I have been asked to reduce our long-term engagement opportunities to be more assembly-line structured. I needed to share about community needs but not systemic harm and asked to make sure they were happy and not put true impact first. "That is just not our messaging," I once heard.

Over time and lived experience, I now realize that MLK Day – next recognized on January 15, 2024 – has become the Superbowl of Service for our sector. Namely:

• There are logistics to prepare;
• T-shirts to be ordered;
• Marketing materials to be created;
• Calendar invites to be sent out;
• Volunteer pages to be updated;
• Corporate groups to secure;
• Is the bathroom clean? Did we order enough supplies?

Oh yes, and one last thought: how will we slide Dr. King's legacy into this? I don't believe this is what he meant by his definition of a Beloved Community.

Throughout my career and consulting practice, I've talked with hundreds of volunteer engagers over the years, and most of their sentiments and experiences are similar. MLK Day of Service, for a number of us, now brings:

• The increased calls and inquiries Black and Brown-led and serving nonprofit organizations must endure include being asked to curate specific education based on performative actions, not a real commitment to co-dreaming. There is an uptick in connecting with Black and Brown justice organizations that will never be concerned about again until the next MLK Day of Service. This puts an extra logistical, emotional, and mental strain on these organizations, as they are used to fit an agenda for the day but have yet to invest the rest of the year.
• The navigation of corporate groups and the power dynamics are often evident as they enter into community spaces without reverence, nuance, consideration, or understanding. They come with the extra red carpet, the extra responsibility of us getting it right, and the meticulous attention to their experience. Given the corporate footprint of current MLK Day celebrations, we must remember that the holiday started as a union demand in contract negotiations.
• The perpetuation of White supremacy culture that includes a sense of urgency related to  rushing to fill the spots, complete the logistics, and send the email confirmations, we miss out on the opportunity to think critically and intentionally about the day. The systems in place don't give the capacity to think long-term and in a way that centers the community the most. This perpetuation of White supremacy culture also includes quantity over quality. I have heard of so many scenarios of big days of service that are constructed like assembly lines helping to meet a goal (x number of backpacks, x number of supplies boxed, etc.) only to be done over again or wholly scrapped due to inefficiencies, gaps, rushing and propping up getting it done vs. being done with care.
• Lastly, we center the right to comfort during these days. Now, I'm not saying volunteers shouldn't be comfortable. We should tell them where the bathrooms are, provide water and snacks if it's a more extended day, and provide breaks in between if needed. But we see volunteers as having unequal power in service experiences that we’ve given them. So we feed that emotional and mental comfort by not communicating truths about the systems that bring them to have to volunteer in the first place. We don't want to ruffle feathers. We want them to come back. So, to do that, we have to make sure we center their work as the best work ever, encourage them with heroism, and make sure we don't make them think too hard about their complicity in harm or think too deeply about the intentional historical harm of isms that presently affects the place of their volunteerism. Dr. King said, "Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary." In what ways do we overlook or omit to tell the truth about systems and injustice to coddle the comfort of organizational retention and placate volunteers?

Changing the Narrative and Experience

As leaders, we must also grapple with our complicity in continuing the strain of an event like MLK Day year after year. I am so fortunate to be working with the Community and Volunteer Engagement team at United Way of King County in Seattle, Washington. United Way of King County decided to pause their Day of Caring, a massive year-after-year, one-day service event because they noticed it was not centered in community and co-dreaming. They chose to wait until they knew exactly what the community desired and how their Black and Brown-led and serving partner organizations could best be partnered with. They had to tell many organizations that they would not be hosting the day and decided to stand firm on a decision that was best for flourishing. Due to Dr. King's legacy, they also decided to reassess their approach to MLK Day of Service and make it more community-focused and intentional. 

With this example in mind, how could you change the narrative and experience of MLK Day? What are you willing to give up to accomplish community impact? What things are you holding onto that have no significant value towards your mission, that upholds supremacy, and that creates a burden for the community to manage and grapple with? Is this the job? Is this the call?

As we show up for MLK Day of Service, we should want volunteers and partners to understand the rich history of Dr. King's life and see it as a direct opportunity to connect people to causes that impact their community while equally appreciating how Dr. King's message embodied neighboring, belonging, social justice, and racial equity. This list is not exhaustive, but here are some actions and approaches to incorporate co-dreaming into this day of service as you lead volunteers. 

Preparing the way towards transformation

• Volunteer opportunities need to be critically assessed, for days of service or every day. Are you engaging volunteers in experiences that the neighborhood, community leaders and clients themselves communicated they actually need? Are you engaging the community that is proximate to the issue? Are you engaging Black and Brown community leaders in the construction of the day? What are organizations based in racial equity and anti-racism leading the way in this work? Are you following? Also, are you taxing Black and Brown with the emotional labor of partnering with you for the day, to not cultivate relationships after that? Don’t use the community, clients, neighbors or grassroots leaders to extract and put on display to show your solidarity with their work. It’s performative and violent. Also, a number of Black folks see this day as a time to rest and remember. Honor that and don’t ask community members, or even staff members who identify as Black or African-American to participate in a day they have personally designated to take a moment of care for themselves.
• Do your research about Dr. King and this day so you can share the connection with volunteer groups and your team. How are you personally prepping for connection to his life and calling? Do you know the history? It took 32 years for every state to acknowledge this day as a holiday and honor him. Let's stop romanticizing collective care and remember that he was killed for his belief in service to the world. Know the whole story. It starts with you.
• Stop just setting goals around quantity and set goals for learning and education, not just stuff and people. What new information do you want to introduce about activism, his life, and social justice through the lens of the organization's work and his? Have a brief curriculum of knowledge goals. You'd be surprised what it took to recognize this day nationwide. Often, during MLK Day of Service, organizations can gloss over the hardship they endured to make this day a reality. To move from transactional facts to a connection with the legacy, share the work and dedication required by Coretta Scott King and others to make it happen. Volunteers must be able to hear and take in the hardship and heart work.

Cultivate an experience worthy of the legacy

• Openly talk about what partnering with the community means in the context of volunteerism. Communicate to volunteers that they are not serving to save or rescue the community but to help alleviate barriers so they can live without harm and injustice. Explicitly communicate how the volunteer opportunity supports the dreams and decision-making of the community they are partnering with (if they actually do). How is the volunteer opportunity creating an avenue for advocacy and increased communal support? What’s the follow-up look like to learn more? Are you providing the opportunity for them to go deeper if they wish?
• Introduce the concept of co-dreaming, where the community is at the forefront and leaders are involved in their community's decision-making, goals and future. It's a volunteer's role to support them in that. David Park of Focused Community Strategies has a beautiful framework of the solar system and community engagement, where often we put our organizations as the sun in the solar system when, in all actuality, we are a planet that needs to be orbiting around the sun, which should be the community. How will you ensure your language and approach reflect that?
• Talk about the actual systems you are trying to dismantle through the volunteer opportunity vs. centering it around "people with problems" who need help (people who are unhoused need your support vs. some of these populations have been historically excluded from resources that would have supported them). People are not projects and should not be treated as such during any part of the day or ever, for that matter.

From surface reaction to deep reflection

I don't care if you have to cut the day short: Make sure to include a time of intentional discussion and reflection after the day of service and pause before volunteers rush to the next moment. Here is where you can challenge biases, discuss furthering the work and share the next steps. Do more than just use this time as an opportunity to boost their ego. It's okay to challenge the volunteers about some perceived biases they may carry about those whom the organization is serving and give a call to action. Feel free to ask some of the following reflection questions:

1. What preconceived notions did you carry about those you partnered with today? How has this opportunity reshaped that?
2. What do others stereotypically say about this community? How can we combat those stereotypes and make a new narrative?
3. What are some new ways you are thinking about Dr. King and his legacy?
4. In what ways can you incorporate transformational service (and not just leave it here) as a lifestyle?
5. Take yourself out of this group context for a moment. We know that you did not solve (insert cause) today, and that's understandable because it took decades of creation and perpetuation to make this our current reality. Dr. King said, "Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." How will you use your voice, your service, and your life to continue working toward dismantling this issue? To demand change? It can't stop here; collectivism is a requirement.

It is vital to mirror that transparency and vulnerability so that others are invited to go there as well as they reflect, so make sure you, as a leader, share your journey of understanding.

It only takes one moment to spark a change, disconnect from unhealthy learning and reshape what “walking alongside” means. Are you providing an opportunity, if even for two hours, to provide an experience for someone to transform how they show up in the world if they choose to? Do you recognize you can be a facilitator of change?

Moving Forward

Toward the end of Dr. King's life, he conversed with the actor, singer and civil rights activist Harry Belafonte and said:

"I've come upon something that disturbs me deeply. We have fought hard and long for integration, as I believe we should have, and I know we will win, but I have come to believe that we are integrating into a burning house. I'm afraid that America has lost the moral vision she may have had, and I'm afraid that even as we integrate, we are walking into a place that does not understand that this nation needs to be deeply concerned with the plight of the poor and disenfranchised. Until we commit ourselves to ensuring that the underclass is given justice and opportunity, we will continue to perpetuate the anger and violence that tears the soul of this nation. I fear I am integrating my people into a burning house."

Belafonte asked King, "What should we do?" King replied, we should "become the firemen. Let us not stand by and let the house burn.”

Every day, we as Volunteer Engagement professionals have a choice. We can commit to adding to the flames or do something to extinguish that fire. So I ask of all Volunteer Engagers, Leaders and Movement Mobilizers: Don't let the house burn on MLK Day or any other day we are called to care.