For many religious and civil rights leaders, this Holy Week marks a time of commemorations not only in the church, but the justice fight: Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Holy Saturday – which also coincides with the 58th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — and Easter Sunday.
As the nation navigates war with Iran, a partial government shutdown, threats to civil rights, and social, economic, racial and political division, faith leaders are emphasizing the power of the Easter message and King’s legacy to inspire work toward justice and peace.
“This narrowly focused idea that, ‘if you flourish, I can’t,’ that ‘if whites make it, Blacks can’t,’ that’s neither the message of Jesus nor the message of King,” said Dr. Barbara Williams-Skinner, president of the Skinner Leadership Institute. “When we have a $1 billion a day for a war, but not $6 a day for a child, food through SNAP, or the elderly to have Medicaid; when we have money right now for the detention centers, but we don’t have money for the homeless, Easter is a reminder that we have everything we need as a nation, that God has blessed America to make sure that everyone can flourish.”
Despite racial disparities, conflict across the world, and attacks on marginalized communities, there’s hope, Williams-Skinner said, particularly as she considered King’s dream of a more just and united society.
“King spoke about the ‘beloved community.’ And that community is characterized in the word ‘shalom.’ Shalom simply means that nothing is missing or broken. America has more than enough — nothing is missing or broken,” she said. “King would be horrified that we would find the money to send more men and women to war, but we still have people who literally cannot go to work, because they can’t afford $4 of gas. King’s telling all of us that our nation can be better.”
Facing challenges through faith is not new and a critical part of the paschal feast, the trusted advisor and public policy strategist noted.
“Jesus was teaching and preaching during a time of Roman oppression, when there was great darkness for people who were poor, and who were orphaned, widows, and the like,” she said, before offering a charge. “The Easter message is to be the love of Jesus, every day, wherever we are, to break out of our political bondage, our political tribes, and our racial and cultural tribes, and to reach out to people who don’t look or vote, or think like us…It’s breaking out of the darkness.”
‘Finding the King in All of Us’
The Rev. Thomas Bowen, general secretary of the Progressive National Baptist Convention, said celebrating Easter while acknowledging King’s assassination offers an important lesson about the world.
“Easter is God’s decisive answer to every misuse of power: what is crucified in truth will rise again,” Bowen, Earl L. Harrison minister for social justice at Shiloh Baptist Church, told The Informer. “As we mark the 58th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., we are reminded that even when truth is struck down, it does not stay buried.”
Nearly six decades after he was assassinated, Williams-Skinner said it’s important to acknowledge King, not just as a means of honoring the fallen civil rights leader, but to remember the legacy he left even after his death on April 4, 1968, at the age of 39.
“He was in Memphis uplifting the poorest of the poor workers— sanitation workers,” she said. “[This reminds] us that we still have an opportunity to uplift the 46 million people living below the poverty level today…to lift up the same cause of sacrificing our time and energy, to help those who can’t help themselves.
His death over these decades echoes to us: what are we doing today to speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves? It’s finding the King in all of us.”
With upcoming midterm elections and looming federal legislation that could be detrimental and divisive for millions of Americans, Williams-Skinner explained it’s time for all people to step up.
One notion on her radar in particular is challenging congressional approval of the SAVE Act, a bill aligned with generational themes of voter suppression, including jeopardizing mail-in ballots and voter eligibility for those without government-issued identification, as well as for the estimated 69 million women who changed their name through marriage or divorce.
“That’s what your vote is about, and that’s what we can do to honor King on April 4 — use our vote as our voice,” she continued, delivering a passionate plea to readers. “We have an opportunity to stop whining about the leadership, the direction of the country, and exercise our citizenship right. It only took a few votes to get the Civil Rights Act. It only took a few votes to get the Voting Rights Act.”
The president of the Skinner Leadership Institute highlighted the time of spiritual renewal as a reminder of the infinite power of God’s light and might, even amid continued justice work.
“[Jesus] died, and he was in the grave, and then he rose again, so that we have the ability today to rise above the darkness of our time,” she said. “We need leaders who will not keep looking for another King-type superhero, but understand that the power of God is in every single one of us to be that light.”
Despite a challenging and divisive time for the country and world, faith leaders across the DMV are emphasizing that Easter offers messages of optimism, liberation and progress in 2026 and beyond.
“Our Easter message is about hope in uncertain times,” said the Rev. Henry P. Davis, pastor of First Baptist Church Highland Park. “With everything happening in the world — from war to government instability — we’re reminding people that the resurrection of Jesus proves God can bring life out of what feels lost. What’s been buried isn’t broken — God can still raise it.”
During the March 27 Stateswomen for Justice Luncheon, hosted annually at the National Press Club, the Rev. Dr. Barbara Reynolds, award-winning journalist, author and minister, set the tone of faithful resistance.
“I just want to thank God for preparing us to continue the fight our ancestors wanted,” said Reynolds told the room of community leaders, activists, policymakers and religious figures. “He has equipped us with brilliance and boldness. We’re fully loaded.”
Thus, she later told The Informer she encourages all followers of Christ to move with the resistance instilled by the “power of his blood,” particularly amid this moment of religious observance.
“For all of us who are suffering from personal hurts or from the cruelty and pain of those at the head of the U.S. government, we will rise above it through our faith,” Reynolds later told The Informer. “He was crucified and rose again, and no devil nor demonic forces on Earth can hold believers down because as he rose, so shall we.”
Co-founder of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Annual Legislative Caucus Prayer Breakfast, now called “Day of Healing,” Williams-Skinner has long championed praying through politically tough moments and leaning on faith in the freedom fight. The faith leader and mentor encouraged tapping into the hopefulness of the resurrection this Easter and beyond.
“The Easter message is… the hope of being renewed in the power of God’s love; the hope of knowing that weeping might endure for a night, but joy comes in the morning,” she said.
“The power of hope is in all of us. It’s not in one leader. It’s all of us, knowing that God has created us in his divine image and likeness, to be what we have been called and created to be.”
As minister for social justice at Shiloh Baptist Church, Bowen said Easter offers a clear charge to combat the challenges of today.
“In a moment when fear and falsehood are loud, the resurrection declares that no lie can live forever,” Bowen told The Informer. “Christ is risen! And that calls us not only to hope, but to stand, to speak, and to keep pressing toward justice.”
King, in his 1963 book “Strength to Love,” famously said: ‘Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.’”
As she reflected on Easter and the 58th anniversary of the civil rights martyr’s assassination, Williams-Skinner encouraged others to be inspired by Jesus’ sacrifice, resurrection, light and love, as well as King’s legacy.
“We have to start realizing that God loves us so much, to accept Jesus to die in our place, not just to fold our hands, or go to church, but so that we can be light in a dark world. That is what Easter is about,” the Skinner Leadership Institute president told The Informer. “It’s equipping us with the light in a dark time, that our world would be better. That’s what this time means.”
