Ever since elementary school, I have always found it odd that we do not attend school on Martin Luther King Day to celebrate his birthday. I understand he was a great man who did great things, but why must we take a day off from everyday life just to reflect on this one person?

Is he the only African American who deserves reflection for his great contributions?

Truth be told, if we really wanted to pay respect to this man, we should be in school. That is what he fought and died for after all anyway.

But on a more important note, why is MLK the only African American man who should receive his very own holiday? Martin Luther King Jr. is such a small part of black history.

He does not represent the beginning, the middle, or the end of black people’s struggles. He is a person who fought and died for the same issues that thousands of people fought and died for. So why just celebrate him and not everyone else?

This was not written to disrespect the legend we now refer to as Martin Luther King.

However, I find it odd that we learn so much about him, and so little about other African

Americans who fought and died for the same struggles as he did.

We celebrate this man’s legacy as if he was the savior of the black race. Even during Black History Month black people reflect on the same people every year. African American History is deeper than Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, and George Washington Carver.

Yes, King was a great activist and speaker, but so were Malcolm X and Huey P. Newton. Where’s their holiday?

These men may have had different views than King, yet their role was still vital in African American liberation.

If America was not willing to listen to King’s non-violent approach, then there were alternatives.

The alternative to King may have not been so peaceful. However, just because they had different methods on how to go about change, does not make them good, bad, or evil.

They were simply human beings reacting to their environment. King was the same way; he just had a different approach.

I personally support the actions of King, but the non-violence approach would not have been successful if there were not African American men and women who felt that things had gone far beyond words. The fear Gabriel Prosser and Nat Turner put into White America was just as important as the words of Martin. So again the question comes to mind, why is he seen as an angel, and everyone else seen as militant?

Fred Hampton, Patrice Lumumba, Earl Little, Marcus Garvey, and Angela Davis were all either murdered, or sent to prison due to their approach in the fight for equality. We treat their legacy as if it has been tainted due to the fact that they were not non-violent or ‘well behaved.’

We act as if these men and women do not deserve the same level of respect and praise as King. We walk around with a mindset that if it was not for King, we would still be marching and yelling ‘We Shall Overcome.’ What makes his personal struggle better than the struggles of anyone else?

There are thousands of people who died in the name of equality during the course of American history, and their names and birthdays will forever remain unknown. For some reason, we attach King’s name to every racial advancement we make.

When African Americans were granted equality back in 1965, we worshiped King. We never stopped and asked about the issues Blacks continued to face decades following that.

When black people send their first child to college, we thank King for fighting for us to have that right.

We never stop to reflect that it was Charles Hamilton Houston and Thurgood Marshall who stood in the courtroom and fought those battles.

When Black History Month comes around, it’s King who seems to get pushed to the front of the discussions. Yet we rarely reflect on Carter G. Woodson, the actual founder of Black History Month.

We give King credit for marching on the streets during a time of turmoil.’ However, in my 19 years of living, I have never seen nor heard about King marching by himself. It was a time of national and global struggle, yet he still seems to be the only person who is glorified.

Even when Barack Obama was elected, we felt that if it were not for the dreams of King, Black people would have never been given the right to vote, nor have a Black president.

We never stop and think about people like Sidney Poitier, who also had a vision back in 1967 of a mixed child one day becoming president of the United States.

I believe King was a great man who did great things. But many African Americans do great things and die for great causes every day.

King was not the only man assassinated in the name of civil rights. He was not the only man who marched on Washington. He was not the only person who chose to stay up and work, opposed to going to bed on many nights.

Yes he was a fighter, but he was not the only man who helped change Black America. Martin Luther King Jr. is not the core of Black History. Yet we pretend as if he was the beginning and end of our strong race.

He deserves respect for living the life he did. But, he was not the only one in the fight, and we should stop treating him like he was.’ ‘

• TRUMAINE MCCASKILL