Community members convene at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE and Malcolm X Avenue SE to celebrate thoroughly cleaning Shepherd’s Park and the surrounding area. (Mya Trujillo/ The ²ÝÝ®tv Informer)
Community members convene at the corner of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE and Malcolm X Avenue SE to celebrate thoroughly cleaning Shepherd’s Park and the surrounding area. (Mya Trujillo/ The ²ÝÝ®tv Informer)

On Jan. 17, ²ÝÝ®tvians gathered in Shepherd’s Park — some with reach extenders and heavy-duty trash bags in hand to clear the litter scattered across the area, and others hunched over snow shovels to deice the park’s perimeter — in preparation for the 20th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Walk and Parade. 

An act of service, collective unity and environmental consciousness hosted by the MLK Holiday DC committee, the community cleanup is a volunteer opportunity to provide the commemoration march with its deserved stage — a landscape free of humanity’s disregard for the environment achieved through virtuous community service. A step toward a healthier environment, this event honors the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of a unified front pursuing equality amongst the injustice’s various intersections. 

“Everything we’re doing is about honoring Dr. King’s legacy and uplifting this community, inviting this community to help us clean up [and] where you stay,†said Peacwalking Rally co-chair DeJuan Mason. “Even if it’s just for a day, it brings us joy. It gives them something to do [and] makes them feel included and a part of it.†

This event aligns with King’s advocacy for community service and environmental justice. 

According to a 2023 by Volunteering and Civic Life in America, more than 75.7 billion people in the United States formally volunteered with an organization, accumulating a collective 4.99 billion service hours. After a historic low in such civic engagement in 2021 due to COVID-19, this is a celebrated feat that breathes life into King’s dreams for the nation’s future. 

Charnita Robinson is no stranger to community cleanups, but this year’s was her first time participating at Shepherd’s Park. As she anticipated engaging in a day of service while commemorating the esteemed civil rights leader, word of the communal event piqued her interest. Despite admittedly not being completely proficient in environmental justice initiatives, Robinson often enjoys hiking, which aligns with her clear admiration for nature and the planet’s well-being. 

“I just know what I see and what irritates me the most– which is trash, litter and people not taking the time to take care of the community,†Robinson said. “I definitely just want to continue to do my part. It may be small, but I’m contributing.†

Continuing Kings Legacy of Service Through Environmental Justice Advocacy

King believed everyone possesses the ability to achieve a higher power and could step into their absolute potential if they carry a deep passion and commitment to humanity’s advancement. 

Exactly two months before his assassination in 1968, he delivered a sermon titled at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where he described individuals’ desires for wide acclaim and redefined what it means to possess greatness. By referencing the Bible and Christianity’s commitment to serving others, King defended his stance that “everybody can be great … because everybody can serve,†and that people could attain such acclaim solely through possessing a graceful heart and “a soul generated by love.†

Maurice Foushee, the cleanup’s co-chair, hopes the occasion sparks inspiration within participants to help improve their communities. 

“With the community cleanup, it helps with aesthetics, certainly, but it also helps with the environment … and getting people involved in things,†said Foushee. “So they may get involved with the cleanup, or maybe they’ll get involved with civic affairs.†

King often highlighted the nation’s environmental struggles, as the first atomic weapons test occurred in his early 20s. The first trials opened a pandora’s box of nuclear violence and threats of warfare. He also experienced the worsening air pollution in the U.S. — a consequence of its increased industrialization at the end of the 19th century. 

Dr. Benjamin Chavis carried on King’s legacy in 1982 when coining the term “environmental racism†during protests against the disposal of toxic compounds in Warren County, North Carolina, a predominantly Black county. He defines it as, “racial discrimination in environmental policy-making, enforcement of laws and targeting of communities of color for toxic waste disposal and siting of polluting industries.†

The fight for environmental justice persists today and its mission is kept alive by many, including the Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., co-founder of Climate Revival. This initiative is a direct testament to King’s approach of using faith as a means to motivate communities to resist the institutions contributing to environmental racism. 

“We must do everything we can to stop the fossil fuel expansion,†Yearwood told the Informer. “So that means for us, not just opposing the development of new infrastructure like petrochemical plants and liquefied natural gas facilities, but also challenging the operation of the existing ones that have plagued our communities for too long.â€

While the prolonged fight against the world’s many injustices may seem discouraging, Mason hopes people will unapologetically continue fighting against environmental racism and carry on King’s mission of bettering the world and its societies for future generations. 

“Everything he did was not for him, but for his children and their children,†said Mason. “We can only honor him by doing that for our children, and our children’s children.â€

Mya Trujillo is a contributing writer at The ²ÝÝ®tv Informer. Previously, she covered lifestyle, food and travel at Simply Magazines as an editorial intern. She graduated from Howard University with...

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *