Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is Monday, Jan. 19, and Chapel Hill and Carrboro are hosting events all weekend to commemorate King’s life and legacy. The celebration culminates on Monday morning with the local NAACP chapter’s annual MLK Day rally, where attendees will gather at 10 a.m. at the Peace & Justice Plaza and march down Franklin Street to First Baptist Church for a service at 11 a.m.

King’s work continues to resonate today, but always in a slightly different way each year. Local leaders spoke with 97.9 The Hill about what they are taking from King’s legacy in 2026.

“If we look way back [to] the 1960s,” said Delores Bailey of EmPOWERment, Inc., “times are kind of reverting back. That’s what it feels like. So, it’s important for us to continue to remember him, to honor his dream, and to continue to do his work.”

Bailey joined 97.9 The Hill in studio with longtime community leader Lillian Lee ahead of the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Celebration co-hosted by UNC-Chapel Hill, which awards scholarships to local high school students and honors King’s legacy. Bailey and Lee serve on the planning committee for the banquet.

“We must make sure that our young people know the history of Dr. King: who he was, what he was, and what he aspired to,” Lee said. “And hopefully they will try to emulate and do all of the things that he did to try to make this a better place for all of us. And I encourage us to always be supportive of our young people, because they need it now more than ever.”

Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP president Herman Foushee said he continues to take inspiration from King’s Poor People’s Campaign, which fought for racial justice and economic justice at the same time.

“There are a lot of issues that we deal with on a daily basis where there’s peace and justice inequities,” he said. “The poor get poorer, the rich get richer. And here we are sitting around saying, ‘What can we do?’

“The question’s not ‘what can we do,'” Foushee continued, “it’s ‘what do we want to do?’ And ‘what are we willing to do?’ What are we willing to move forward, to make things happen?”

And while the past year has been a discouraging one for many community members, Lee Moavenzadeh of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro NAACP says she believes King’s life can serve as a reminder that anything is possible.

“Someone said the other day, ‘It’s a new year, but if you don’t change, it’s just another year,'” Moavenzadeh recalled. “So, what would we like to be different in Chapel Hill and Carrboro this year, in how we behave and how we see each other, how we hold each other? And I think Rev. King always provided a deep sense of hope in what’s genuinely possible in the human spirit.”

In addition to the events around the community over the weekend, some local government services will be interrupted as the holiday is recognized. Find a list of those here.

Featured photo via the Town of Carrboro Recreation, Parks, & Cultural Resources Department.

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