Today is January 19, 2026, Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This is a day when, through acts of service, community efforts, or simply by reading his words and remembering his sacrifices, we honor one of the greatest civil rights leaders in U.S. history.
I have been thinking about what can possibly be said about the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that has not already been said. As I reflected on his words and revisited some of his speeches, one moment in particular stood out to me: the beginning of the Montgomery Bus Boycott.
According to King’s own recollections, this was a period of intense fear. His family was receiving constant death threats. Phone calls came in late at night threatening his life and the lives of his loved ones. It would not surprise me if many of those making such threats identified as Christians, ironically. King described one night in particular when he was alone in his kitchen, preparing a cup of coffee, exhausted and overwhelmed. He prayed honestly, telling God that he was at the end of his strength, that he felt alone, and that he did not know how to go on.
King described what followed as a profound spiritual experience. He felt that God spoke to him, telling him to stand up for truth, stand up for justice, stand up for righteousness, and that he would never be alone. In essence, God promised to be with him to the very end.
This took place at the very beginning of the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955. King was only 26 years old, and suddenly thrust into an enormous calling: becoming the public face of a movement that disrupted the comfort and moral complacency of White society in Montgomery, Alabama. As it should have. Segregation was unjust, anti-God, and fundamentally incompatible with Christianity.
That reflection led me to think about King’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail. In that letter, King speaks sharply about White moderates, including ministers of the gospel, who continually urged patience and delay. Justice, they argued, should wait. King rejected that logic outright. As he explained, those committed to evil and injustice never waste time. In fact, they use time strategically. It is the oppressed who are told to wait, and waiting becomes a tool of oppression. “The time is always right to do what is right,” King insisted.
One section of the letter that stands out to me now is King’s outline of the four steps of nonviolent action: first, the collection of facts to determine whether injustice exists; second, negotiation; third, self-purification; and finally, nonviolent direct action.
The step that stands to me today is self-purification.
In images and videos of protests unfolding in Minneapolis and across the country, I see everyday people in the streets demanding justice in response to anti-immigration policies rooted in white supremacist ideology. I see clergy. I hear chants. I see confrontations. And I find myself asking: have we done the interior work King spoke about? Have we engaged in self-purification?
King described this interior work as prayer, fasting, and meditation, an intentional effort to rid the heart of anger and hatred — two very dangerous forces. Unchecked anger can quickly override good judgment. Hatred darkens the soul. Crimes of passion are often rooted in unchecked anger or hatred.
The chaos, violence, and lawlessness we are witnessing from agents of the state right now is enough to make anyone’s blood boil. People are being slammed to the ground, pulled from vehicles, tear-gassed, detained without cause, and later released after days or weeks of unlawful confinement. Agents reportedly nearly killed a baby when targeting his family’s vehicle with tear gas. Disabled and elderly individuals have been treated with indifference. Reports continue to surface of allegations of abuses in detention, including denial of medical care and sexual assault. There have been dozens of deaths in detention reported so far, with at least one believed to have been a homicide.
I’m convinced that it is anger and resentment motivating some federal officers on the ground, whether through ideology, fear, or dehumanization. Shooting tear gas canisters directly at people’s heads, macing individuals at close range, or using force on peaceful protesters is not law enforcement. It is cruelty.
That is why the interior work must come first.
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