Washington, D.C.—Martin Luther King Jr.’s message of nonviolence resounded during an assembly at Eastern High School yesterday when 40 Eastern High students took a pledge of nonviolence. Students from two Maryland high schools—Central High School in Capitol Heights and Forest Park in Baltimore—who had just taken the pledge, were on hand as well.

Those supporting the students as they joined the effort called “40 Days of Nonviolence: Building the Beloved Community,” included Preston Lyles, a sophomore at Central High School, High Point, N.C. Lyles was one of a contingent of 40 students from the North Carolina school. Encouraging the students to get involved in service as part of the 40-day pledge of nonviolence, Lyles, who lost his father to violence when he was five, acknowledged the violence that plagues both Washington and High Point by noting that as Redskins player Sean Taylor was dying from a gunshot wound, the District experienced its 171st murder of the year. Lyles asked how many students had lost a friend or family member to violence. Dozens of hands shot into the air in response to his question, but fewer were raised when he asked how many gave back to their communities. Lyles said, “If I can give back after someone took my dad from me, you can too.”

The 40 Days of Nonviolence is spearheaded by the National Alliance for Faith and Justice as part of the PEN or PENCIL B.U.S. Boycott Service-Learning Movement, an effort to emphasize the importance of choosing the pencil (education) over the pen (penitentiary), and reduce behavior that might lead to negative contact with law enforcement. The pledge is designed to increase student awareness of ways to combat the violence that plagues young people.

In congratulating the students for taking the pledge, Elizabeth Seale, COO of the Corporation for National and Community Service, told them that the Corporation offers “opportunities in every state of this great country for you to serve and give back,” and suggested that after serving this year on MLK Day, they consider full-time service following graduation.

Former Philadelphia Mayor Wilson Goode, who now serves as director of Amachi, a national organization that recruits adults to serve as mentors of children of prisoners, told the students, “If you give up your seat in the classroom and drop out, there’s almost a guaranteed seat for you in the penitentiary.” Staying in school, on the other hand, opens the door to attending college and be an active participant in life after college, he said. “The most important decision I made was I refused to give up my seat in the classroom. And because I refused to give my seat up, I stand here as the former mayor of the fourth largest city in the country, and you can do the same. Let’s make this 40 days of nonviolence one where you refuse to give up your seat in the classroom for one in the jailhouse.”

Henry Lozano, Director of the White House Office of USA Freedom Corps, presented President’s Volunteer Service Awards to the 40 students from High Point. “This is about how we honor Martin Luther King through what we do today,” Lozano said. “It’s about how we look at what we call service today across this country.”

The National Alliance of Faith and Justice is one of the Corporation’s MLK Day grantees, as the Corporation works to make this year’s commemoration the largest ever. Other organizations receiving MLK Day grants from the Corporation include the Arizona Governor’s Commission on Service and Volunteerism, the Corps Network, the Points of Light/Hands on Network, and Service for Peace. For a list of subgrantees, click here. To Learn more about the upcoming 2008 Martin Luther King Day of Service, visit http://www.mlkday.gov.

This year, the Corporation is expanding the King Day of Service by providing community based organizations with resources including funding, toolkits, online project registration services, and coordination in key cities by AmeriCorps*VISTA members in key cities. Organizations can use these resources to link volunteers with activities such as National Mentoring Month and the Semester of Service, a project designed to use the MLK Day of Service as a way to connect students with volunteer activities throughout the following semester, culminating in Global Youth Service Day.

The Corporation also is connecting MLK Day activities with corporate sponsors including Bank of America, Best Buy, Cargill, Clear Channel Communications, Comcast, Shell Oil Company, the UPS Foundation and Verizon.

The Corporation for National and Community Service improves lives, strengthens communities, and fosters civic engagement through service and volunteering. Providing service opportunities for millions of Americans of all ages and backgrounds, Corporation programs include Senior Corps, AmeriCorps, and Learn and Serve America. For more information, visit nationalservice.gov.

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