A Day On, Not a Day Off

AYLA PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

MLK Day of Service

BY BLAIR LEAKE, WRIGHT & GREENHILL, P.C.

AYLA runs a yearly event known as the MLK Day of Service, which is a full day of numerous different volunteer opportunities for local attorneys and their loved ones on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The MLK Day of Service, however, is certainly not something that was invented by AYLA, and instead has a long, winding history that is worth exploring.

The actual holiday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, was first formally proposed as federal legislation by Michigan Congressman John Conyers just four days after King’s assassination on April 4, 1968. Conyers proceeded to introduce the same legislation year after year until—finally—15 years later it was passed and signed into law in 1983. However, only 27 states initially recognized the holiday. Some states made a notso-subtle dig at MLK and what he fought for by crassly combining the new holiday with holidays honoring persons who fought for the Confederacy—and thus necessarily fought for subjugation and slavery.

Virginia is one of a handful of states that opted for such a snub the following year by combining the new federal holiday with Lee- Jackson Day to form Lee-Jackson- King Day. Sixteen years later, Virginia partially relented and split the combined holiday into two separate holidays. Twenty years after that, Lee-Jackson Day was formally eliminated entirely as a Virginia holiday and replaced with Election Day, lending credence to King’s famous belief that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”

The federal legislation that enshrined MLK Day did not stay static. Eleven years after its original passage, Congressman John Lewis and Senator Harris Wofford proposed the King Holiday and Services Act of 1994 to amend the bill that first established the holiday. According to the National Museum of African American History & Culture, the amendment made MLK Day the only federal holiday designated as a day where all Americans are encouraged to volunteer and improve their communities. As King himself once observed, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?”

AYLA members making care packages on the annual Day of Service in 2022.

It is no surprise that the holiday created in King’s honor developed the informal slogan of being “a day on, not a day off.” Beyond just helping your community, volunteering has also been proven again and again to help one’s self. In the past, volunteer opportunities provided through AYLA’s MLK Day of Service event have included opportunities to help abandoned animals, help local schools, help those in hunger, help those experiencing financial insecurity, and help those in need of medical care. AYLA invites you to join in on Monday, Jan. 16, 2023 by making it a “day on” to stand up and help your community as well as yourself. AL

AYLA DAY OF SERVICE

Monday, Jan. 16, 2023

In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the Austin Young Lawyers Association will coordinate its 13th annual Day of Service project in Austin on Monday, Jan. 16, 2023. This local project is modeled after the national Martin Luther King Day of Service, which is intended to transform Dr. King’s life and teachings into community service that helps solve social problems.

AYLA invites the Austin legal community to sign up for one or more of the volunteer or donation opportunities available for the Day of Service. Save the date ahead of time to plan to volunteer or donate. Volunteer opportunities and signup information will be shared in early January.

Blair Leake