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Martin Luther King Jr. Day & National Day of Racial Healing (January)

Library Databases

Research Areas

Civil rights history and King’s legacy

  • Main ideas: Historical analysis of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, King’s leadership, major campaigns (Montgomery, Birmingham, Selma), and key legislation such as the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act.​
  • Keywords: civil rights movement; Martin Luther King Jr.; Montgomery bus boycott; Birmingham campaign; Selma; Voting Rights Act; nonviolent direct action

Nonviolence, ethics, and social movements

  • Main ideas: Kingian nonviolence as a moral and strategic framework; links to religious ethics, philosophy, and later movements for racial, gender, LGBTQ+, and economic justice.​
  • Keywords: Kingian nonviolence; nonviolent resistance; Christian ethics; moral philosophy; social movements; Beloved Community

Structural racism, inequality, and policy

  • Main ideas: Empirical and theoretical work on racism in housing, education, policing, health, labor, and voting; contemporary efforts to address the injustices King critiqued, including poverty and militarism.​
  • Keywords: structural racism; racial inequality; racial wealth gap; school segregation; mass incarceration; fair housing; voting rights

Education, youth activism, and MLK-inspired programs

  • Main ideas: Studies of MLK-themed service learning, campus MLK weeks, scholarship programs, and youth leadership initiatives that promote inclusion and civic engagement.​
  • Keywords: MLK Day programming; service learning; youth activism; civic engagement; diversity education; campus climate

Memory, commemoration, and public history

  • Main ideas: How MLK and the Civil Rights Movement are remembered through holidays, monuments, museums, curricula, and media, including debates over historical narratives and contestation of King’s image.​
  • Keywords: collective memory; commemoration; MLK holiday; public history; monuments and memorials; curriculum; historical narrative

Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation (TRHT) frameworks

  • Main ideas: TRHT as a national and community framework for confronting racism’s roots through narrative change, relationship-building, and structural change; design and evaluation of TRHT initiatives.​
  • Keywords: Truth Racial Healing and Transformation; TRHT; racial healing framework; narrative change; structural racism; equity initiatives

Community-based racial healing practices

  • Main ideas: Case studies of racial healing circles, intergroup dialogues, storytelling projects, arts-based work, and restorative justice practices in communities and on campuses.​
  • Keywords: racial healing dialogues; healing circles; intergroup dialogue; restorative justice; community storytelling; arts and social change

Mental health, trauma, and racism

  • Main ideas: Research on racial trauma, intergenerational harm, and how healing-centered, culturally responsive practices support psychological and community wellbeing.​
  • Keywords: racial trauma; racism and mental health; intergenerational trauma; healing-centered engagement; community care; health equity

Libraries, archives, and memory institutions in racial healing

  • Main ideas: The roles of libraries and archives in racial equity and healing, including collection development, description and reparative metadata, programming, and partnerships linked to the National Day of Racial Healing.​
  • Keywords: libraries and racial equity; decolonizing archives; reparative description; community archives; racial healing programs; NDORH

Policy, systems change, and racial equity planning

  • Main ideas: Institutional and governmental racial equity plans, accountability mechanisms, and how racial healing work connects to policy and organizational culture change.​
  • Keywords: racial equity action plan; anti-racism policy; institutional change; equity audits; organizational culture; implementation and accountability