COMMUNITIES across the United States celebrated the Martin Luther King Jnr holiday on Monday with acts of service, prayer services and parades. 

In Dr King’s hometown of Atlanta, several speakers at the 56th annual commemorative service at the historic Ebenezer Baptist church, where the legendary civil rights leader served as pastor, touched on the divisive partisan climate in the country.

US Senator Raphael Warnock, the church’s long-standing senior pastor, told the audience: “You better stand up and vote!” which was met with rousing applause. 

“If your vote didn’t count, why are folks trying so hard to keep you from voting? Stand and use your voice. Stand up and use your vote. Speak up!”

Bernice King, the daughter of Dr King, warned that “our humanity is literally under attack.”

However, she noted that her father’s legacy of non-violence had taught the world that “we can defeat injustice, ignorance and hold people accountable at the same time without seeking to destroy, diminish, demean or cancel them.”

Speaking at the MLK Day at the Dome rally at the South Carolina statehouse, Vice-President Kamala Harris said that young people two or three generations removed from Dr King have seen their freedoms shrink.

“They even try to erase, overlook and rewrite the ugly parts of our past,” Ms Harris said.

“For example, the Civil War, which — must I really have to say? — was about slavery.”

In Washington DC, Martin Luther King III, the eldest son of Dr King, participated in a wreath-laying event at his father’s memorial.

In Los Angeles, thousands gathered for the annual Kingdom Day parade, which had the theme: “Can’t stop, won’t stop, going to the promised land.”

City Mayor Karen Bass said: “The inequality is staggering, with more than 70 per cent of unhoused Angelenos being people of colour. While we celebrate the legacy of Dr King today, we must recommit to confronting this crisis of our time.”