“For much of the past year, America has been reckoning with the legacy of slavery and the persistence of racial injustice in our country,” said Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles, president of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops. “Sadly, it is still true that the ‘color of our skin’ often matters more in our society than the ‘content of our character,’ as Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., said a half-century ago.”

This year as we commemorate the legacy of this great American, we remember especially Rev. King’s belief in nonviolence and the power of love.