Today’s Action: Sign up to volunteer for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

Today is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, celebrating the life of one of our country’s greatest activists and human rights advocates. And although there have been solid advances in the rights of Black Americans since Dr. King’s work in the 1950’s and 60’s, we are far from a place of true equality.

We encourage the OD Action community to honor Dr. King’s legacy by taking part in one of the many MLK Day volunteer events around the country (which can be found at this link).

Black Americans are incarcerated at rates significantly higher than whites in every single state, from 2.4-to-1 in Hawaii up to 12.2-to-1 in New Jersey. And prison labor serves as a backbone to our country’s industry, a modern-day slavery that produces billions of dollars of annual corporate profit for free or close to it (with wages less than $1/hour).

In 2013, the right-leaning Supreme Court struck down key portions of the Voter Rights Act of 1965, the Civil Rights Movement’s keystone legislation to protecting ballot access for the disenfranchised. Since that time, the GOP has quietly passed a flood of voter suppression laws strategically aimed at Black voters.

And, as the great people of Black Lives Matter have so courageously kept at the forefront of news, Black communities continue to live – and die – under an unchecked and bloody police surveillance state.

Dr. King’s work is not over – but you can continue it. Use a few of your holiday hours to make our country a little more equitable by joining one of the thousands of MLK Day volunteer opportunities.

Search for MLK Day volunteer opportunities near you TODAY – sign up or start your own!