Inheriting the Dream: Santa Barbara Prepares for Five Days of MLK Jr. Events

“Dear Dr. King,” the poem begins.

“It’s me, a dreamer that woke up in your tomorrow.”

The line comes from “A Letter to Dr. King From the Future,” written by 16-year-old Santa Barbara student Stella Burnett — one of this year’s top honorees in the Martin Luther King Jr. Committee of Santa Barbara’s annual poetry and essay contest. Addressed directly to Dr. King, the poem imagines what it means to inherit a dream decades later — not as a passage in a history book, but as a responsibility to carry into the future.

That idea — of inheritance, of a legacy being passed, carried, and adapted — runs through Santa Barbara’s five-day celebration of Dr. King’s life and work this year. It appears in student writing, in marches and memorials, and, quite literally, in the presence of members of the King family themselves.

For local civil rights leaders, the day is also about gathering — and recommitting.

“This is a day to bring folks together,” said Connie Alexander, president of the Santa Barbara NAACP, “and reassess where we really are when it comes to justice issues.”

Leah Weber King, the widow of Dexter Scott King — Dr. King’s youngest son — will serve as the keynote speaker at the Martin Luther King Jr. Day program on Monday, January 19, at the Arlington Theatre. The main program begins at 11 a.m., following the annual Unity March up State Street.

“Dr. King’s holiday arrives this year not as a relic of history, but as a mirror held up to our present moment,” Weber King said in a statement. “His dream of a beloved community challenges us still — to bridge divisions that feel wider than ever, to choose solidarity over tribalism, and to remember that the arc of justice bends only when hands do the bending.”

In 2026, she added, “his call to meet hate with love and injustice with courage isn’t naive idealism — it’s the hardest, most necessary work we have.”

Her appearance anchors the Martin Luther King Jr. Committee of Santa Barbara’s 19th annual celebration, which runs January 15 through 19 and includes five days of events spanning the University of California, Santa Barbara; downtown Santa Barbara; and community venues across the city.

The weekend opens Thursday at UCSB with a noon gathering at the Eternal Flame, followed by a walk to North Hall commemorating the 1968 student protests that led to the creation of the Center for Black Studies Research. Friday evening brings a special service at Congregation B’nai B’rith, featuring student poetry and essay readings. Saturday includes a Ring Shout — a historic African-American spiritual dance — at Trinity Episcopal Church, followed by a screening of MLK/FBI at the Community Environmental Council Hub. Sunday centers on worship across participating faith communities.

Monday’s events begin at 9 a.m. at De la Guerra Plaza, with a morning program, opening prayer, and student readings before the Unity March heads up State Street to the Arlington Theatre for the main program.

“Welcoming a member of the King family as our MLK Day keynote speaker is a rare and meaningful opportunity for our community,” said Gregory Freeland, president of the MLKSB Board of Directors.

MLKSB Executive Director E. onja Brown-Lawson echoed the sentiment.

“At a moment when democratic norms, community voice, and historically significant days are being challenged or diminished,” Brown-Lawson said, “her presence underscores the very values our 2026 programs aim to uplift — moral leadership, justice, and service to humanity.”

The theme guiding this year’s celebration — “We need leaders not in love with money, but in love with justice; not in love with publicity, but in love with humanity” — comes from a 1956 speech Dr. King delivered in Buffalo, New York. It also served as the prompt for this year’s student poetry and essay contest, which drew submissions from children ages 6 to 18 across Santa Barbara County.

Fifth-grader Yunyi Mu, of Isla Vista Elementary School, explored inclusion through everyday experience in an essay titled “The Day No One Asked Where I Was From.”

“When I realized that,” Mu wrote, “I understood what Dr. King meant by love for humanity. It’s not about noticing our differences, it’s about seeing how we are the same.”

Other student work grappled with leadership and the weight of unfinished work. Another poetry honoree, Vivi Ralston, wrote: “Though hatred sought to silence, his spirit will not die / His dream lives in our actions, in every tear and sigh. / So stand with courage, lift your voice, and hold his dream alive, / For Dr. King’s dream is ours — as long as we survive.”

The celebration arrives amid renewed national debates over how — and whether — Black history is publicly commemorated. Recent federal decisions, including changes to National Park Service holiday observances and directives aimed at reshaping how American history is presented, have drawn criticism nationwide. Locally, MLKSB leaders say the moment has only sharpened the urgency of this year’s programming.

“There needs to be a response,” Freeland said, referencing a March 2025 executive order titled Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History. “Leah Weber King’s speech and a fundraising auction of rare photos of African-American icons later this year are part of that response.”

“We understand what the tone is,” Alexander said when speaking about federal messaging. “But it doesn’t shift anything that we’re focused on.”

Wendy Eley Jackson, a filmmaker, educator, and newly appointed MLKSB boardmember who helped facilitate Weber King’s appearance, emphasized the responsibility of carrying the legacy forward.

“Dr. King’s work demands more than remembrance; it calls for disciplined stewardship, moral courage, and an unwavering commitment to justice,” Jackson said. “When we understand his legacy not only as history, but as lived responsibility, we are better equipped to protect and advance the values that remain vital to the future of our shared humanity.”

It seems many young voices across Santa Barbara accept that responsibility. For Burnett, writing from the future did not come with certainty. Her poem underscores the unfinished nature of a changing world. A world that takes leaps forward, and big steps back.

“Leadership is not the gold-plated letters on a nameplate,” she wrote. “But the dirt underneath your fingernails from planting seeds you might never see bloom.”

She signed off with her name and a promise — a promise “to keep marching.”