Deciding Which Way to Look

Buckle up.

This coming Monday is Inauguration Day for America’s president-elect Donald Trump. It is also the day we celebrate the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

That means two powerful men will be honored and celebrated on Jan. 20. One, an activist who served as a prominent advocate for non-violent protest during the Civil Rights Movement. The other, a strongman with a rich history of advocating for violence who once bragged that his pre-insurrection speech on Jan. 6, 2021, drew a bigger crowd than King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

This might feel like a Trumpian attempt to eclipse another person’s moment of glory. It’s actually not. The 20th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution dictates that “the terms of the President and the Vice President shall end at noon on the 20th day of January.” Meanwhile, the federal holiday honoring King, first observed in 1986, takes place on the third Monday of January every year—a date that always falls close to the activist’s Jan. 15 birthday.

In the more than eight decades since the 20th Amendment established that inauguration date, nine presidents have assumed office, of which two did so on MLK day. (One was Bill Clinton in 1997; the other was Barack Obama in 2013.) 

For many Americans, Monday might feel like a heavy day. Personally, I’ll be torn between a desire to look away as Trump’s swearing in is broadcast around the world, and an urge to glue my eyes to the television as history yet again unfolds in all of its unapologetic pomp.

One thing that has given me some comfort, is an interview that Bernice King, the youngest child of King, gave to The Independent in November. No, she said, of course she didn’t want Trump to clinch another presidential election victory, but the date of his inauguration? That might actually be a small win, she told the paper. 

“I’m glad that if it was going to happen, it happened on the King holiday, because Dr. King is still speaking to us,” she said. “We cannot retreat or recoil,” she said. “We have to commit ourselves to continuing the mission of protecting freedom, justice and democracy in the spirit of my father.” She’s treating the inauguration as a call to action, she explained, an opportunity to reiterate her and her fellow activists’ commitment to the values for which her father fought so tirelessly: civil liberties for all.

Nonetheless, we all have a right to decide what we need to do on Monday. Do we watch as Trump recites his oath of office for a second time? Do we catch a basketball game? Do we spend the day reading about the legacy of the Rev. Dr. King? Or might we educate ourselves on the lesser-known women who worked with King, including those who inspired his most famous speech?

For what it’s worth, Michelle Obama won’t be attending the inauguration. No reason was given for why she’ll skip it, but she also owes no explanation.

Still, those looking for one may find answers in something she said in 2023, regarding Trump’s 2017 inauguration, which she did attend. "To sit on that stage and watch the opposite of what we represented on display, there was no diversity, there was no color on that stage," Obama said on her podcast. "There was no reflection of the broader sense of America. Many people took pictures of me and they're like, you weren't in a good mood. No, I was not."

Let’s see if this year it’ll look any different. I’m not holding my breath.