In honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we're rerunning this story that appeared in The Doll's Storybook three years ago. We hope you enjoy it.
"How has your week been, Pauly?" Mariah asked, as the dolls' young friend climbed up to stand on one of the dining room chairs next to Billy.
"Short," was Pauly's reply. (His answer was short in more ways than one, but that’s often the case with Pauly.)
"It’s because of Martin Luther King Jr. Day," Pippa said, as if the other dolls didn’t know that they had just had a holiday.
"For Martin Luther King Day, The Writer and her husband made up some packets of food to keep in the car to give to people who need it," Pippa said. "Some of us helped!"
"They said it was something called…" Billy had to think. "They called it a 'National Day of Service' to honor him."
"On Monday," Pauly said, "Jeffy and his dad went with some other people to clean up trash along the highway. I guess that’s why. That’s service, isn’t it?"
The other dolls agreed that spending your holiday cleaning up trash was a service.
"When was he king?" Pauly asked.
"That’s his name," Billy explained. "He was an American. We have lots of human people named King in this country," he added, "but none of them are rulers. We don’t have actual kings or queens. It’s just their name."
"A king who rules a country is called a monarch [MAW-nark]," Mariah told him. We have a president, but that’s not the same as a king. Our president isn’t a monarch."
"So he was a president, then?" Pauly asked.
"He was a very important human person," Mariah told him, "and a great leader, but he was never a president."
"So," Pauly began thoughtfully, "if he wasn’t a king and he wasn’t a president, why do we get a holiday named after him?"
Mariah began stacking her books and moving them aside. This was going to take some explaining. "Well," she said, "Last week, my teacher asked me to give a talk about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. All the students in my class had to give talks on a subject they picked for themselves, but my teacher suggested this topic to me, because she thought I would be especially interested in finding out more about Dr. King." Mariah finished stacking her books and closed her notebook.
Pauly was about to ask something, but Mariah guessed what it was. Pauly notices everything. "No, he wasn’t the kind of doctor who looks after sick people," she told him. "He was called Dr. because he kept on studying after he finished college. It means that he graduated again on a higher level, just like doctors who look after sick people have to."
Pauly was thinking there was still a lot of things he didn’t know about the world.
"Why did your teacher think you would like to find out more about Dr. King?" Billy asked, while Pauly was thinking. "I mean, if all the others in your class just picked their own topics."
Mariah thought about that. Yes, it was true. She was the only doll in her class she knew of who was given a topic by the teacher. "She didn’t say," Mariah replied, "but I’m pretty sure it was because I’m almost the same color as Dr. King."
"You mean he had brown vinyl?" Pauly asked, astounded.
"No," Mariah laughed. "He was a real human person. Real people have skin, not vinyl, but his skin was brown, like my vinyl, although when they talk about real human people my color, they say they are Black and real human people who have pink skin like your vinyl are called White."
"That actually has a lot to do with why Dr. King was so important and why he has a special day," Mariah added.
"It must have been something very important," Pippa suggested, "other than his birthday, I mean."
"Well, it is sort of his birthday," Mariah told them. He was born on January 15th, so they picked the Monday closest to that for the holiday."
"What he did to make his birthday worth celebrating," the older doll said, "is that he made people realize that the color of a human person’s skin doesn’t mean that they should be valued more or less than others. All people have the right to be treated fairly and equally."
"Dr. King explained things so everyone could understand," Mariah declared. "He led Black people, and many White people, too, to march peacefully to protest unfair treatment of Black people. He insisted they do it without hurting others, even if others hurt them first. That’s why the protests were so successful. A lot of laws were changed because of those protests."
"They must have been very brave," Pippa observed.
Mariah nodded. "Yes, and many were hurt by people who were afraid of change," she agreed, "but it worked, and it's still working. When other people saw that the protestors stayed peaceful they took their side. Some laws were changed and new ones made. Many people changed their minds. There's still a lot to do, but things are better for everyone because of Dr. King. More people today wait until they know someone before they decide if they like them. They don’t dislike someone or treat them unfairly, just because of their skin color."
"But there are still some human people," Mariah continued, "who want to believe that being White makes them better than people who are Black. Maybe they don’t feel good about themselves, and believing their skin color makes them better than others gives them something they can feel proud about. Whatever it is, they don’t want that taken away. They don’t know that what’s on the outside of a human person—or a doll even—doesn’t tell you who they are."
"I think I know what you mean," Pauly said, "about not knowing how a person or doll really is just from the outside. It’s like Christmas presents."
The other dolls looked at Pauly in surprise.
He knew they wanted him to explain. "Well," he said, "Jeffy got this beautiful present for Christmas. The wrapping was really special.
"He was so excited to open it," Pauly continued, "but when he did, he found out that what was inside was underwear."
"It was nice underwear," Pauly said, "but not his favorite thing for a Christmas present. Oh, and socks. The other part of the present was socks. The present was from his grandmother. He thanked her and gave her a hug, but he really was hoping for something more fun."
"Then," Pauly continued his story, "there was another present from his grandmother. The wrapping was nice, but not so fancy."
Reader's Challenge:
Mariah: Götz Happy Kidz Mariah, "Chosen" from My Doll Best Friend
Billy: Götz Happy Kidz Lily at London
"The Doll's Storybook" is not affiliated with Gotz Dolls USA Inc. or Götz Puppenmanufaktur International GmbH.
Watch for the next story each Friday afternoon at 1:00 PM Pacific Time.
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