Parade-goers march during the 45th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial March in downtown Raleigh on Monday, Jan. 20 ,2025. Middleton called King a proponent of “radical love,” and attendees remembered him as a leader who encouraged action and compassion.

Martin Luther King III is exploring new ways to understand legacy and success. “Life should be a legacy of love,” the oldest son of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King told TribLive.

Martin Luther King Jr. Day activities were held on Monday at Alpena Community College, hosted by the MLK Beloved Community of Northeast Michigan. Activities included crafts and storytime for children,

When leaders at Project S.T.O.R.Y. noticed there were no events celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Concord, they decided that needed to change.

“With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds.” -- Abraham Lincoln, March 4, 1865.

An event for Martin Luther King Jr. Day is held at the Durham Museum in Omaha on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025. Nezzie Hardges holds her niece Amelia Kelley, 6, while they listen to Preston Love Jr. read from his children's book "Your Bridge to History" at an event for Martin Luther King Jr. Day at the Durham Museum in Omaha on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025.

The breakfast, held annually on MLK day, honors the memory and legacy of Dr. King as well as the work of Reverend Jackson.

Today's local leaders expressed defiance toward Trump, while young speakers at the Columbus celebration spoke in hopeful tones about the future.