Pnina Aaronson, undergraduate student in The School of Social Work, recently won second place in the FIU the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. scholarship award for her moving essay. Aaronson hopes to pursue her Masters in Social Work after graduating. Pnina has been married for 20 years and has six children. She hopes her experiences as a wife and mother can aid her in her future social work career.
Honoring the Past, Empowering the Future: How Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Influenced the World (and Me), by Pnina Aaronson
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Pnina Aaronson and her academic adviser Sheila Jenkins-Boone hold the photograph of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that sits in Aaronson's office and inspired her essay. [Photo taken by Zenaida Pirri.][/caption]This magnificent picture is hanging in my home office. It was taken at a rally in Montgomery, Alabama. Dr. King is flanked by two men, his confidantes and dear friends. On his right is Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. On his left is Reverend Ralph Abernathy. In the middle stands Dr. King himself. His eyes are closed in concentration, one wonders what he is thinking. There is so much I love about this powerful picture: the beauty resting on Dr. King’s face. The juxtaposition of Reverend Abernathy holding a Torah scroll. Three holy men, different colors, different religions, standing together in solidarity. Its unspoken message is perhaps what Dr. King spoke the loudest about.
I am a social work student. Social work is a helping profession, and Dr. King lived a life of helping service. As a Baptist minister, his title was “Reverend.” As a PhD in systematic theology, his title was “Doctor.” In my eyes, however, Dr. King holds the ultimate title: Social Worker. The 6 core values of social work, as defined by the National Association of Social Workers are: service, social justice, dignity and worth of the individual, the importance of human relationships, integrity, and competence. Dr. King embodied them all.
In honoring the past, we can acknowledge a core value of social work – social justice. Dr. King committed his life to it. I recently saw a video in a social work class, defining social justice as “a fair and just relationship between individual and society.” Dr. King lived during a time when this “fair and just relationship” relationship was denied to Black America. He was born into the Great Depression, in 1929 America’s deep south. This was a terrible time for all Americans, particularly those who were Black. They were the first to lose their jobs, and were turned down for public services. There was hostility, resentment, and violence directed at Black people, even towards children. Dr. King went to a segregated school, and endured childhood humiliation over various racial slights. Despite (or perhaps because of) the rancor directed towards him, he preached love and forgiveness. In his words, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.”
In my belief that Martin Luther King was ultimately a social worker, one only needs to look at his life efforts: they sing like an elegy to social work. Time and again, Dr. King stood up for righteousness. In 1955, he took part in the Montgomery Bus Boycott, fighting for fair seating. In 1957, he helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization dedicated to achieve civil rights through non-violent means. In 1961, he was arrested while peacefully demonstrating in Albany, Georgia, only accepting bail when the city agreed to certain terms for its residents. In 1963, he marched on Washington for “jobs and freedom,” where he delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. In 1964, he went to Selma, Alabama to help with voting registration. In 1965, again in Alabama, he marched from Selma to Montgomery advocating for civil rights. In 1966 he went to Chicago’s slums to support the poor. In 1967, he spoke in New York against the Vietnam War. It wasn’t simply in the name of peace, which he certainly stood for. It was to protest America’s spending money on war, when it could be spent on social welfare instead. In 1968, he traveled across America on a “Poor People’s Campaign,” to encourage economic equality for all. And In 1968, he was brutally murdered – a martyr for his cause.
To empower the future, we must continue to spread Dr. King’s message of service. “Life’s most persistent and urgent question,” Dr. King asks us, “Is what are you doing for others?” Each of us must become social workers, fighting for his cause. We must make efforts to eradicate racism, in all of its subtle nuances. We must also strive to eradicate its institutionalized blatancy. Like Dr. King, we must stand up against poverty, unfair treatment, and inequality. We must exercise our rights of - and indeed DEMAND - civil liberty. We must strive to understand the lives and experiences of others, as social workers are exhorted to and as Dr. King DID. We must work together: ALL OF US. Different colors, cultures, religions, genders, orientations, and abilities – we must loudly speak the unspoken message that my picture speaks, a message shouted by Dr. King through his life and works: We are truly one, and better TOGETHER. “We may have all come on different ships, but we’re all in the same boat now.” – The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Video thanks to the Division of Academic and Student Affairs.