Early in the year, the significant legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King resonates strongly. The third Monday in January is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, providing an occasion for reflection along with formal recognition of his impacts.

The holiday is also an appropriate introduction to Black History Month, officially designated as February. On April 4, 1968, Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., while demonstrating support for and solidarity with garbage workers.

Reflecting on his enduring significance is important and instructive.

Initially, he was reluctant to lead beyond his local community, concerned as well as insightful in seeing the crusade might ultimately cost him his life. Nonetheless, he accepted the role.

King’s leadership qualities were recognized while he was still young. Striking rhetorical skill was one key ingredient. He was also, though not always, a shrewd strategist.

To reflect usefully, accurate understanding of his life is essential. Especially regarding a murdered martyr, there is a tendency to idealize and therefore distort. That is unfortunate for two reasons. First, oversimplifying the complexity of human existence can easily diminish the person described. The leader seems less consequential as personal as well as external battles defining courage are erased. Second, oversimplifying the past limits capacity to draw accurate lessons.

Martin Luther King was not a saint; he was a great leader.

As political turmoil intensified during the 1960s, broadly unified civil rights efforts fractured. King preached unity, but confronted disintegration. His Southern Christian Leadership Conference, emphasizing nonviolence, was increasingly overshadowed by various other organizations. The Congress of Racial Equality staked out much more militant ground. The separatist Black Panther Party, always a tiny extreme fringe organization, nonetheless garnered enormous sustained media focus through alarming rhetoric and occasional violence.

The fact that Dr. King endures from that era, so sharply defined, testifies to the value of both his message and his leadership. The ecumenical March on Washington in August 1963 continues to be remembered because of the enormous scale of the pilgrimage, and also the timing. Immediately thereafter, President John F. Kennedy moved from extreme caution to active support of major civil rights legislation.

As this implies, King’s efforts were part of a broad current of great change in American race relations. In 1955, Rosa Parks helped spark the modern civil rights movement by refusing to move to the back of a bus in Montgomery, Ala. She and many others built the foundation for King’s later efforts.

Fully making this point requires discussing noteworthy elected government leaders. President Lyndon B. Johnson secured passage of major civil rights legislation in 1964 and 1965, with vital help from Senate Republican leader Everett Dirksen. Also important is President Harry S. Truman’s historic decision in 1948 to desegregate the armed forces. Re-expansion of our armed forces starting in 1950 with the Korean War made this even more important.

President Dwight Eisenhower ensured implementation of Truman’s decision. He also desegregated Washington, D.C., schools and sent the 101st Airborne to Little Rock, Ark., to quell mobs preventing school desegregation.

Also in 1948, at the Democratic National Convention, young Minneapolis Mayor Hubert H. Humphrey pressed to include civil rights in the party platform. Many advised Humphrey against this. He persevered successfully.

In the resulting maelstrom, Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina and other Southern delegates bolted the convention. They established the breakaway Dixiecrat Party, with Thurmond the presidential nominee, and won Deep South states in the fall election.

Despite this, President Truman won the election.

This powerful history set the stage for King’s pivotal role. Without him, our nation might have pursued a far worse course.

King’s example is important in evaluating current leaders, elected and self-appointed and anticipating our collective future.

Arthur I. Cyr is the author of “After the Cold War – American Foreign Policy, Europe and Asia.”