Martin Luther King Day will always hold special memories for me. It was the day we arrived in the US at the beginning of our Year In America adventure and although we didn't know it at the time, it was to be a theme that would weave its way into our experience. Throughout the course of that year, our journey took us through many of the towns that were central to Martin Luther King Jr's life - the house where he was born in Atlanta Georgia and Montgomery, Alabama where he preached and became involved with Rosa Parks and the bus boycott that was to be a turning point in the civil rights movement. For me, those were moments that sum up much of why I travel - to be able to stand in the same room as the desk where King wrote many of his speeches, or to sit on the bus where Rosa Parks sat, is to have the opportunity to place yourself in history; for a brief moment to walk in another's shoes, and to reconsider your own life from a new perspective.
In May 2009 I wrote a blog post entitled Stories From The Kitchen Table. For me it sums up one of the things I admire most about Martin Luther King Jr.
And if you've got an extra couple of minutes, take a look at this post on Rosa Parks' bus - History of The Shed - if for no other reason than to appreciate Nyani's beautiful photo.
photo credit: National Archives
