Communities across the United States held parades, church services, and rallies Monday for the 40th federal observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, with many participants and organizers saying the current political climate gives the holiday renewed urgency.

In Atlanta, speakers at Ebenezer Baptist Church — where King preached — called out what they described as attempts to rewrite the history of racial injustice. In Washington, hundreds braved cold weather to march along Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue. At Indiana University Indianapolis, administrators canceled a King Day dinner for the first time in 60 years. And in Westbrook, Maine, a church called off its service after reports that immigration enforcement agents were operating in the area.

The observances come one year after President Trump’s second inauguration fell on King Day and as his administration has rolled back federal diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. In a recent interview with The New York Times, Trump said the Civil Rights Movement was harmful to white people — a characterization sharply disputed by civil rights leaders and elected officials. Some conservatives said the holiday should focus solely on King’s original vision of a colorblind society.

Atlanta: calls against historical revisionism

A.R. Bernard, founder, pastor, and CEO of the Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, told an audience gathered at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on Sunday that the Trump administration is attempting to rewrite history.

“We are living in a moment where America is being tempted to forget the painful truth of its Black history. Slavery being renamed as labor, segregation reduced to a footnote, racial terror explained away as exaggeration,” Bernard said. “This is irresponsible, historical revisionism.”

U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, a Georgia Democrat and Ebenezer’s senior pastor, urged the crowd to keep pushing against the administration’s policies. He invoked the history of King’s fight for the Voting Rights Act after Congress passed the Civil Rights Act and described what he characterized as attempts from within the administration to divide Americans.

“They are trying to weaponize despair and convince us that we are at war with one another,” Warnock said.

Officials on the legacy

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, the state’s first Black governor and the nation’s third elected Black governor, said this week that the Civil Rights Movement remains central to American identity.

“I think the Civil Rights Movement was one of the things that made our country so unique, that we haven’t always been perfect, but we’ve always strived to be this more perfect union, and that’s what I think the Civil Rights Movement represents,” Moore told the Associated Press.

Maya Wiley, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights — described as one of the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights coalitions — said the economic and social issues King championed remain unresolved.

“From health care access and affordable housing to good paying jobs and union representation,” Wiley said, “things Dr. King made part of his clarion call for a beloved community are still at stake and is even more so because (the administration) has dismantled the very terms of government and the norms of our culture.”

Policy backdrop

One year ago, Trump signed executive orders titled “Ending Illegal Discrimination And Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity” and “Ending Radical And Wasteful Government DEI Programs and Preferencing,” which accelerated a rollback of civil rights and racial justice initiatives across federal agencies, corporations, and universities, according to the Associated Press.

In December, the National Park Service announced it would no longer offer free admission to parks on King Day and Juneteenth. Free admission would instead be offered on Flag Day and on Trump’s birthday, the AP reported.

In a recent New York Times interview, Trump said he felt the Civil Rights Movement and the reforms it helped usher in were harmful to white people, who “were very badly treated,” the AP reported. Politicians and advocates said those remarks dismiss work by King and others that benefited not just Black Americans but women, the LGBTQ+ community, and others.

The shooting this month of an unarmed Minneapolis woman in her car by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who had been dispatched to target the city’s Somali immigrant population, further intensified concerns about regression from social progress, according to the AP.

Trump issued a proclamation late Monday, writing: “On this day, I encourage all Americans to recommit themselves to Dr. King’s dream by engaging in acts of service to others, to their community, and to our Nation.” The White House did not respond to a request for comment from the AP.

A conservative counterpoint

The Heritage Foundation think tank urged the holiday’s observance to focus solely on King himself. Brenda Hafera, a foundation research fellow, encouraged people to visit the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park in Atlanta or reread King’s “I have a dream” speech.

Hafera argued that using the holiday as a platform to rally around “anti-racism” and “critical race theory” rejects King’s actual vision.

“I think efforts should be conducted in the spirit of what Martin Luther King actually believed and what he preached. And his vision was a colorblind society, right,” Hafera said. “He says very famously in his speech, don’t judge by the color of your skin, but the content of your character.”

Civil rights organizations

The NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization, said heightened fears in communities of color and among immigrants require King Day observances to take a different tone. Wisdom Cole, the organization’s senior national director of advocacy, said participants face safety risks.

“As folks are using their constitutional right to protest and to speak out and stand up for what they believe in, we are being faced with violence. We are faced with increased police and state violence inflicted by the government,” Cole said.

The Movement for Black Lives, a coalition affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement, planned demonstrations in Atlanta, Chicago, and Oakland, California, among other cities, under the banner “Reclaim MLK Day of Action.”

“This year it is more important than ever to reclaim MLK’s radical legacy, letting his wisdom and fierce commitment to freedom move us into the action necessary to take care of one another, fight back, and free ourselves from this fascist regime,” Devonte Jackson, a national organizing director for the coalition, said in a statement.

Cancellations and continuity

For the first time in its 60-year history, Indiana University in Indianapolis canceled its annual Martin Luther King dinner. The school’s Black Student Union cited “budget constraints” in a social media post but said it worried the decision was “connected to broader political pressures,” according to the AP. Some students organized smaller community dinners to fill the void.

In Westbrook, Maine, St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church canceled a King Day service, citing “unforeseen circumstances” on the parish website. A member of the church’s social justice and peace committee told NewsCenterMaine.com that the pastor was concerned about people’s safety amid rumors of ICE agents being in the area.

Overall, there were few reports of King Day events being significantly scaled back or canceled, according to the AP.

At the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee — on the site of the former Lorraine Motel, where King was shot on April 4, 1968 — the annual King Day celebration proceeded normally, with free admission offered as an annual tradition.

“This milestone year is not only about looking back at what Dr. King stood for, but also recognizing the people who continue to make his ideals real today,” said Russell Wigginton, the museum’s president.

Washington marchers

In Washington, hundreds marched along Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue in cold weather. Sam Ford, a retired broadcaster and member of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade Committee who helped revive the march in 2012, said the observance carries meaning beyond any single year.

“We got to continue to do this because not just of Dr. King, but of what he stood for,” Ford said. “The struggle continues.”

Parade participant Harold Hunter said the day’s significance extends across racial lines.

“It’s not just a white thing or Black thing. This is a people thing,” he said.