Chesterfield, VA Students to report to school on MLK Day
 

IN SCHOOL ON KING DAY? Chesterfield, VA students will not observe the holiday.

(Dec. 16, 2002) *The NAACP and ACLU have begun protests against the Chesterfield, Virginia County Schools because the school district will require students to make up a snow day on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
“I think for many it will be suspicious that the first holiday to be sacrificed to make up for inclement weather is Martin Luther King Day,” said Kent Willis, executive director of the Virginia ACLU.

But the Chesterfield County School Superintendent, Billy Cannady, Jr., who is black, says that there is another way to view the situation.

“It reinforces for me, as an African-American, Dr. King’s strong belief in education as an equalizer,” Cannady said.

Virginia’s graduation laws require schools to make up snow days before testing periods begin in the spring. According to Cannady, January 20 is the first available date after the Christmas vacation.

But, Chesterfield is not exactly a model of racial tolerance. Earlier this year, its Board of Supervisors passed a measure to name April as Confederate History and Heritage Month. And in September, the white supremacist group, World Church of the Creator, held a meeting at a Chesterfield library.

CFTU @ the superintendant's comment.
“It reinforces for me, as an African-American, Dr. King’s strong belief in education as an equalizer,” Cannady said.
How does it reinforce that? :confused: I hope he wasn't serious when he said that?

Granted, I know that we have more serious things to worry about, but still, MLK day is in January, which meant that he still has the rest of the winter to worry about snow days. Why can't they do like any other school district and just add additional days on at the end of the year?

I live in VA, and I guess I am one of the few people that was not bothered by this being used as a snow day. First and foremost, what's the big deal? It's not like students are at home studying about MLK anyway. And if it wasn't that day, it would have had to be another day....Veterans Day....Labor Day.... And also, in VA, its not just MLK day... it's Lee-Jackson-King Day ...:eek: :eek: ..........that's a whole other post though!

I think this is another case of AA's being TOO sensitive and putting too much focus on things in our community that aren't really all that important. Lord knows in VA....We have bigger fish to fry!!!

Also, in the area, a lot of school days were lost due to snow, and the sniper attacks. Adding on days at the end of the year wasn't an option because the TEACHERS complained and it ran into testing time. I think they may have to give up some of their Spring Break too.

Well I live in Cali...
 

and I don't see the big deal. Personally, I really not in favor of having people celebrate King Day by staying at home and lounging. I'm really not in favor of having a holiday in honor of a person, for that matter. Still, I see the Super's point. I feel that having them in school honors him more, than having them play video games all day. As our national program states, the day should be a day on, not off.

What's really Important, Symbols or Action?
 

With all the uproar lately about Sen. Trent Lott's remarks and the fraternal debate some of my chapter bruhs have ben having over whether the King memorial is something worth while :confused: , I was wondering what do some black folks think is important, symbols or actions? Immediately people will respond with actions. But consider the full ramifications of symbolic jestures, they belie the true intent of a person or a movement and set the agenda or basis for future action. For instance, with the King memorial, many people say Dr. King wouldn't have liked things like a king Holiday or a Memorial because it's purely a symbolic jesture lacking in any true redeeming value for social change, and it uses up resources that could be used better. But with a national reminder of the issues that Dr. King championed, it could inspire people to think, and if new generations of people are thinking, innovative ideas come to play and from those ideas, actions are born. As it is now, we have no new, innovative ideas about affirmative action, educational achievement gaps, incarceration rates, etc. What we are beginning to see is a conservative backlash that has middle class blacks disguising conservative ideology in religious rhetoric and greed as "blessings" from God.

These instances would not have sat well with Dr. King. I think that they are taking root in our society because we do not value moral thought and communal identity anymore. Things that 40 years ago were not accepted in the black community (Like minstrel shows) are now embraced because they make money (have you seen groups like Field Mob and Nappy Roots :eek: ?). Just Friday I was talking to a young man who stated that though drugs are bad, selling them is okay because you make money, regardless of what they do to our community, as long as you don't take them yourself:( . Contrary to Marx, Greed is the opiate to revolution, not religion. What we have now are calls for pragmatic solutions that do not value our total humanity; mind, body and spirit. Without the "symbols" searing our consciousness, we have fallen into a complacive maylaise of "Bling Bling" and "thank You Jesus" for it. We need symbols to inspire us.
What do you guys think?

Blackwatch!!!!!!

Well, some of the points are well taken, but think of the other holidays that we take and all we do is lounge around all day? How many of us truly commemorate days like Veteran's Day or Memorial Day? On these days do you attend tributes, visit the graves sites of fallen soldiers? Or so you sit at home lounging or go to the mall? On the 4th of July, so you celebrate the revolutionary war and its meaning or do you simply see it as a time to get together and barbeque without a single thought to why it is even a holiday to begin with.

My point is MLK Day (to me) deserves the same respect as any other holidays, regardless as to what some people think INDIVIDUALS do or should be doing on this day...whether it be sleep, attend an MLK program, go shopping or whatever. I just feel like, if we (AfAm) give folks an inch on something small (which I think is usually used as a smolescreen), they will take a mile on something important.

Granted, compared larger issues such as poverty, healthcare, etc. it does seem to be a drop in the bucket, but do not knock this holiday just because SOME people do not observe it as you THINK they should.

ok....but even if children go to school, isn't MLK still being recognized on that day?? Is it not still a Holiday? ANd most of the programs, at least here, that commemorate him are done at night. The meaning is still the same. ANd the day is still his. What's really being lost? Free time at home? I mean what's really going on? What are people so up in arms about?

I think I could see this as a valid point if this was consistently being done, but it's just a SNOW DAY!

What's really being "given" up? Everybody can't be pleased all of the time. Any holiday you use, someone's going to cry about it.

:rolleyes:

That is really sad that not everyone observes King's birthday as they should. I just found out recently that the City of Saginaw School District as well as Saginaw Township Community Schools and the Buena Vista School District (these are all in Saginaw) has NEVER acknowledged the third Monday in January as King's birthday; it was instead observed as the end of the first semester and was made a teacher workday. This year, however, all the school districts will observe King's birthday. All offices and schools will be closed and teachers and students will not report. I was fairly shocked by this, esp. with the City schools b/c the City school district has the 3rd largest enrollment of African-American students in the state behind Detroit and Flint.

Even the colleges here in MI do not celebrate King's birthday. Every year I attended Saginaw Valley State I have always had to attend class on that day. Some of my professors decided not to have class on that day so that we can participate in celebrations around campus and in the city. SVSU always hosted a MLK dinner on campus and invited a guest speaker and all the minority organizations participated. Wayne State will be closed on that day this year, and I've heard that it will be their first time doing so as well. Why is King's birthday not celebrated as much here in the North?? In the South, EVERYTHING shut down for King's birthday!!

Blackwatch, your discussion of symbols is interesting. I remember a very thoughtful consideration of symbols in the African American community (focus on MLK day) in Derrick Bell's "And we are not saved". It's a collection of allegorical stories. I am against the use of symbols and the elevation of individuals. First of all, I feel that people are so focused on the symbol as opposed to the sentiments it represents. As a historian, I am also against singling out individuals. Sure, MLK did great things. However, he was one person. He was not the movement. But, that's just me. I see what you are saying though. I am around kids everyday, and there is something lacking. But, I don't think that symbols will be enough for this generation.