While Martin Luther King Day is relegated to one day each year, it is important to remember that the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s lives on, his advocacy and preaching never loosing relevance in our day-to-day. Throughout our Vermont communities, folks came together to reflect and celebrate the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s commitment to justice.

The Fair Housing Project’s partner, the Old North End Arts Center, celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s legacy with their Better World Camp. The ONE Art Center invited kids to explore kindness through art projects, focusing on fun and the different ways the children can express themselves. They spent MLK Day by making art projects in a variety of media, practicing drama, storytelling, dancing, playing organized games, asking kids to think about What is service to others?

The pandemic has put unprecedented stress on our communities, our families, our coworkers, our neighbors. But as we move into the safety of the zoom cyber space, collaboration has become second nature. Organizations have the flexibility to not only cohost conversation across sectors, but even for connections to be built across state lines. The City of Burlington hosted this thought-provoking panel on Reparations and Reconciliation, inviting not just local city officials and scholars, but representatives from other cities experiencing their own Reparations and Reconciliation discussions and legislative actions.

Following the themes advocates and leaders raised in this conversation, in this VT Digger article, Rohan and his brothers, Aaron and Justin Providence, share a vulnerable conversation about their experiences growing up Black in Vermont with a level of candidness new even to their own family.

“You have to take a step back and just listen,” Rohan tells VT Digger, echoing a sentiment not only shared in the city hosted panel on Reparation and Reconciliation, but an echo of Black voices since the beginning of the racial justice movement. With vulnerable honesty, this family shares their story to illustrate what must be done all across Vermont: frank conversations about race and racism in our communities.

That “raw truth” is core to this powerful commentary from Kesha Ram (D-Chittenden), Vermont’s first woman of color to serve in the state Senate. State Senator Ram points to the glaring racial disparities in COVID-19 rates, policing, and homeownership as the true causes of Vermont’s prevalent & persistent whiteness. Ram corrects the popular and comfortable opinion that Vermont’s lack of racial diversity can be solved merely through more rigorous recruitment, adding critical insight to an urgent equity issue in our state.

You can find the rest of Burlington’s recorded MLK Day events, including a story walk organized by Fletcher Free Library that you can still participate in on your own, here.