MLK Day 2025: Moving the Dream Forward in New Mexico

by Shannon Yvonne Moreau

Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2025 is Monday, Jan. 20. New Mexico Black Leadership Council’s UpLift Chronicles has compiled a rundown of celebrations happening in Albuquerque and around New Mexico.

Keep scrolling for some timely quotes from The Reverend Doctor Martin Luther King, Jr., followed by a list of 2025 MLK celebrations around the state.

Stay Updated with NMBLC’s Events Calendar

Continue to check our events calendar, nmblc.org/all-events, for new MLK event deets as they come up.

Timeless Wisdom: Quotes from King’s Final Book

The following quotes are from Dr. King’s final book, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?. It was written in 1967, the year before his assassination. In this text, King charts a course towards equity in the country as the Civil Rights Movement fractured along ideological lines and American society sank into disillusionment.

“The line of progress is never straight. For a period a movement may follow a straight line and then it encounters obstacles and the path bends. It is like curving around a mountain when you are approaching a city. Often it feels as though you were moving backward, and you lose sight of your goal; but in fact you are moving ahead, and soon you will see the city again, closer by.”

“A final victory is an accumulation of many short-term encounters. To lightly dismiss a success because it does not usher in a complete order of justice is to fail to comprehend the process of achieving full victory.”

“Like life, racial understanding is not something that we find but something that we must create.”

— Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?, 1967

2025 MLK Celebrations Across New Mexico

• Discussion of MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, Thursday, Jan. 16, 6pm, Online via Zoom
Event Details: nmblc.org/events/discussion-of-mlks-letter-from-birmingham-jail

• Martin Luther King, Jr. March, Saturday, Jan. 18, 9am, Albuquerque, UNM and Civic Plaza
Event Details: nmblc.org/events/martin-luther-king-jr-march-2

• Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Service, Sunday, Jan. 19, 3pm, Albuquerque, Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church
Event Details: nmblc.org/events/martin-luther-king-memorial-service

• 2025 “Science is Everywhere” MLK Day Camp, Monday, Jan. 20, 7:30am, Albuquerque, National Museum of Nuclear Science & History
Event Details: nmblc.org/events/2025-science-is-everywhere-mlk-day-camp

• MLK Breakfast, Monday, Jan. 20, 8am, Albuquerque, Embassy Suites
Event Details: nmblc.org/events/mlk-breakfast

• Our Freedom Can’t Wait: A Playback Theatre Gathering For Racial Healing, Thursday, Jan. 23, 5pm, Albuquerque, Explora
Event Details: nmblc.org/events/our-freedom-cant-wait

• 40th Annual Black History Month Kickoff Brunch, Saturday, Jan 25, 10:30am, Albuquerque, UNM
Event Details: nmblc.org/events/40th-annual-black-history-month-kickoff-brunch