17/01/2022
Today is an important day in the City of Petersburg. Today is the 49th celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King's birthday as a municipal holiday in the United States. 49 years ago, the city of Petersburg, Virginia started the journey of the government (in its various forms) of the whole country celebrating his birthday and to then get to where we are today--The only federally designated National Day of Service.
I moved to Petersburg 3 years ago from Anchorage, AK. In Anchorage they have this day as the day that every attorney in town will donate time to help people navigate the legal system. Everyone comes down to Sullivan Arena and the lawyers then help people in whatever capacity is needed. Unfortunately, here in Petersburg, this day cannot even be acknowledged. Instead, there is no celebration, no Positive Petersburg Moment and no one dedicating the day to service. In a town of 85% minority that is a shame.
Next year is the 50th anniversary of the beginnings of this very important holiday. FIFTY YEARS!! How many of you knew that???
Martin Luther King Jr. Day was started here because so much of what Dr. King wanted to accomplish was started here. His Chief of Staff, Wyatt Tee Walker, was a pastor here, in Petersburg, when they first met. Mr. Walker led the very first Trailways Bus Station sit-in as well as the very first library sit-in in the nation. Both of which were the first to then be desegrated in the nation. The "schools" that were then used to teach sit-in participants how to passively react to people trying to get them to stop the sit-ins were started here in Petersburg. Dr. King came to many African American churches in Petersburg to speak as well as help to get people signed up to vote, though out his life. He would stay at a "safe house" here since black people were not allowed to stay at the motels in the area...Unfortunately, this house is privately owned and is not being well taken care of. It really is a shame that it cannot be turned into a museum. The city does own and could be taking care of the area around it...but it is a blighted neighborhood that the city prefers to just leave alone rather then come in and work on the houses there. (One across the street collapsed this past fall because of neglect, even though there are laws in the city that make not taking care of your home and not paying taxes illegal. If you do a Google search, you will discover that there are a lot of privately owned, vacant, blighted homes in Petersburg that the city continues to ignore).
Perhaps by this time next year, things will begin to change around Petersburg when it comes to this very important man. I am hoping to lead an initiative to get flags and signs out commemorating such an exciting event. I am hoping that perhaps we can have quite the celebration to recognize 50 years!! In the meantime, please check out a video that my friend Marcus Squires put together last year, as a favor to me, to show the world some of the very important Civil Rights history that comes directly out of Petersburg, Virginia. My newly adopted home and my favorite place in the whole world!
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Petersburg, Virginia. Petersburg, Virginia a city with a forgotten past. The history found within this city did not just shape ...
