BALTIMORE — At about the same time Monday that President-elect Donald Trump delivers his inaugural address, the poet Unique Robinson is scheduled to emcee an afternoon of performances celebrating the legacy of slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., plans to serve meals at the Our Daily Bread food kitchen, while Baltimore County NAACP President Danita Tolson said she will work with her sorority sisters in the food pantry’s warehouse.

They are among many Marylanders who are celebrating King Day this year in the shadow of the inauguration. The two events are coinciding for just the third time since 1986, when the civil rights leader’s birthday was first honored as a national holiday.

That confluence “is shocking to say the least,” said Robinson, who has curated an afternoon of tribute performances by Baltimore musicians and writers at the Walters Art Museum.

“Martin Luther King represented togetherness, while the man who was elected president represents an intense separation,” Robinson said. “These are two completely opposing forces occurring on the same day.”

Interviews with a handful of local Black leaders found none who plan to attend Trump’s swearing-in ceremony, which has been moved from the national mall to a smaller venue indoors as a result of what is expected to be extreme cold, with highs in the low 20s in the District of Columbia on top of what could be up to three inches of snow from the day before.

Instead, some civic-minded residents plan to honor King’s memory in the traditional manner: By participating in a day of service.

Mayor Brandon Scott said he will work with department heads to city clear streets and ensure public safety.

The mayor said he finds himself thinking a lot about King’s philosophical shift in later years from an agenda laser-focused on achieving racial equality to obtaining economic justice.

Scott said he’s concerned that the Trump administration might attempt to cut funds for key city initiatives aimed at combating violence and at investing financially in at-risk neighborhoods.

“Dr. King’s mission to ensure that everyone is treated the same is even more important now than it was then,” Scott, a Democrat, said. “We want to continue that work and ensure that it is not disrupted.”

But he’s not ruling out the possibility that he and the Republican president will be able to find common ground.

“We hear that the president-elect’s administration understands the importance of these goals,” Scott said. “We hope they see the resurgence that Baltimore is having in reducing crime and in other areas.”

Tolson, an educator and nurse, said she’s working with the state to ensure that the new president doesn’t attempt to roll back gains aimed at making prescription drug costs more affordable.

“It doesn’t do any good to diagnose people with a treatable illness if they if they can’t afford the prescriptions they need,” she said. “The burden of high prescription prices will fall most heavily on members of the community who can’t afford to take care of themselves.”

By law, presidential inaugurations occur on the Jan. 20 in the year immediately following an election. That’s a date that only occasionally falls on a Monday, as it did in 1997, when Bill Clinton was sworn in for his second term.

Barack Obama’s second term technically began on a Sunday, when he took the oath of office on Jan. 20, 2013, in a small private ceremony. But public festivities were scheduled for the following day, Jan. 21 — which coincided with that year’s King Day celebrations.

For Mfume, the importance of celebrating King’s birthday can’t be overstated, especially since he spent years working to establish MLK Day first as a national holiday, and later as a day of service.

In addition to serving meals, Mfume plans to visit Our Daily Bread’s employment center, a spokesman said, as well as the Maryland Center for Veterans Education and Training.

Mfume wrote in an essay published online at the Black publishing website wordinblack.com that he’s not boycotting Trump’s inauguration. In the past, he wrote, he has attended swearing-in ceremonies for both Democrats and Republicans.

“Attendance at the ceremony has always been a choice made out of respect for the office,” he wrote, “no matter which party was in the White House.

“But in this instance … I feel personally driven in respect to the life and legacy of Dr. King to celebrate it how I always have — through acts of service.

He concluded his remarks with this tongue-in-cheek observation: “And in regard to my absence at President-elect Trump’s inauguration, I don’t think they’ll miss me.”

The scheduling conflict posed by the King Day celebrations in addition to the prediction of inclement weather could cut attendance at the inauguration for both Trump supporters and protesters.

In 2017, the Women’s March on Washington drew an estimated crowd of 470,000. This year, the event has been renamed “The People’s March.” By 5 p.m. Friday, 49,611 people had signed up for Saturday’s march, or just 10.5% of the 2017 crowd.

Meanwhile, closer to home, the nonprofit Civic Works has rallied more than 300 volunteers to participate in seven projects in the city, from cleaning public spaces to landscaping urban gardens.

In addition, the activist Dayvon Love and the Rev. Donte Hickman will be two of six members of a panel at the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture that will discuss King’s call to embark upon “an era of creative maladjustment.”

The panel “seeks understanding, healing and active solutions in the dawn of a new political era,” according to the Lewis Museum’s program description.

Love, director of public policy for the thinktank Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, also plans to attend a meeting Monday at the Northwood United Methodist Church of local Black leaders to discuss food insecurity in Baltimore and juvenile justice reform, among other issues.

He said he would be taking part in the same activities regardless of which political party had prevailed in the fall, 2024 elections.

“Society is still structured around racism and white supremacy,” Love said, “and both parties in their own way perpetuate an unjust system. There’s a tremendous amount of work still to be done.”

Hickman, pastor of the Southern Baptist Church, said that while he will join the panel instead of attending the inauguration, he doesn’t think Marylanders can afford the luxury of cynicism.

“With President Trump in office, people should not turn away because they may not like him personally or like the rhetoric of his campaign,” Hickman said. “So many times we allow racism to stifle and sidetrack us, and to distract us from the main issues of ensuring decent housing, health care and opportunities for gainful employment.”

Newly appointed Baltimore County Fire Chief Joseph W. Dixon is keenly aware that his job requires him to be apolitical.

He said he plans to steer away from partisan activities of all sorts, and instead will visit up to 10 county fire stations to meet the men and women who risk their lives to keep their neighbors safe.

That doesn’t mean Dixon won’t make a political point in his own quiet way, by stopping by at least one local cafe to buy a cup of coffee for a stranger.

“It’s a way to light a candle,” said Dixon, who on Nov. 4, 2024, became the first Black man to lead the county’s fire department. “It will allow me to wish people a good MLK Day, and to show goodwill to someone who might not look like me.”

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