Hāwane Rios Instagram – In honor of Martin Luther King Jr Day, These are the leis made by mothers at Kawaiahaʻo Church that were sent to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr for his march to Montgomery from Selma in 1965. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. preached at Kawaiahaʻo Church a month prior to Selma and said that Hawaiʻi was “…[an] inspiration and a noble example of racial harmony”. Rev Akaka and the women of Kawaiahaʻo Church made these leis for Dr. King to show their support for the Civil Rights Movement and the lei was “representing a symbol of hope and peace in the face of fear and ignorance” from the people of Hawaiʻi. Martin Luther King Jr. was touched by Hawai’i year when he first visited the islands years earlier in 1959. In an address to the state legislature, when it still met at ʻIolani Palace: “…As I think of the struggle that we are engaged in in the South land, we look to you for inspiration and as a noble example, where you have already accomplished in the area of racial harmony and racial justice what we are struggling to accomplish in other sections of the country, and you can never know what it means to those of us caught for the moment in the tragic and often dark midnight of man’s inhumanity to man, to come to a place where we see the glowing daybreak of freedom and dignity and racial justice….” Upon his return, he stated to his congregation: “As I looked at all of these various faces and various colors mingled together like the waters of the sea, I could see only one face— the face of the future!” (Dexter Echo, 4 November 1959) The first pic is that of Rev. Abraham Akaka and his daughter with the leis. With the leis, Rev. Akaka included the following note to Dr. King: Dear Brother Martin Luther King – As you “bring good news to the meek, bind up those that are bruised, release to captives” our Prayer and Aloha reach out to enfold you. These flower lei were made by mothers of the Kawaiaha‘o Church — for you and our brothers in the cause of our Lord Jesus whose commandment you obey: “Feed my lambs” Tend my sheep Feed my sheep” History will honor this hour because His chosen servant was faithful and a great nation responded to that faithfulness. A.A.