Rep. Kweisi Mfume skips Trump inauguration for MLK day of service: 'Find a way to give back'

Hannah Gaskill, The Baltimore Sun on Jan 20, 2025

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BALTIMORE — Congressman Kweisi Mfume was feeding hungry Baltimoreans at Our Daily Bread Employment Center as President Donald Trump’s second inauguration ceremony began Monday morning.

“What I do, I do out of my heart, out of my memory, and out of my respect for the work of Dr. [Martin Luther] King [Jr.],” Mfume, a Democrat who represents Baltimore in the U.S. House of Representatives, told The Baltimore Sun.

Trump was sworn-in on Martin Luther King Jr. Day — the first time a president was publicly inaugurated on the federal holiday since President Bill Clinton in 1997. President Barack Obama had a public inauguration ceremony on the holiday on Jan. 21, 2013, but was privately sworn in on Sunday, Jan. 20.

In his inaugural address, Trump, a Republican, said he would “strive to make [King’s] dream a reality.”

Mfume holds Martin Luther King Jr. Day dear for many reasons. He and a coalition of civil rights leaders, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson Jr. and celebrities like Diana Ross, went to the steps of the U.S. Capitol every Jan. 15 for years to advocate for the country to recognize King’s birthday as a national holiday — “not because people needed another day off, but because people, really, in this country … needed to always be reminded of what came before them,” he said.

“It’s the story that has to be told,” said Mfume.

President Ronald Reagan signed the law declaring Martin Luther King Jr. Day a holiday in 1983. Mfume said it took an additional 17 years for the holiday to be recognized as a national day of service.

Mfume said that the juxtaposition of Trump’s inauguration and King’s holiday coinciding was “striking.”

“Dr. King believed in equity and inclusion. He believed in diversity, he believed in giving people the opportunity to succeed, and he believed in people,” Mfume said. “What we’re seeing now with the inauguration of Mr. Trump, again, is a president who, up to this point, has gone out of his way to eliminate and disparage diversity and inclusion and, to some extent, opportunity.”

During his inaugural address, Trump made clear he was taking steps via executive order to end diversity and inclusion programs.

Trump said it will be U.S. policy that there are only two genders: “male and female.” His first wave of executive orders Monday rolls back protections for transgender people and eliminates DEI programs that he said “socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.”

“We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based,” Trump said.

Mfume said he wishes Trump well and doesn’t want to “prejudge” the new administration, but he will work to make sure diversity is protected.

“I am going to continue to fight back and to make the argument that we just can’t do away with diversity in this country … nor should we also make it harder for people to succeed, and, please, at some point, get rid of this notion of reverse discrimination, because I don’t know how that can happen,” he said. “Quite frankly, I just know that if everybody is treated equally — if we are all one nation, under God and indivisible with liberty and justice for all, then I would like in my lifetime to see liberty and justice for all. And so much of that is on the line right now as we go forward.”

As the snow flurried intermittently in downtown Baltimore, Mfume scooped piles of green peas onto yellow plates that he handed assembly-line style to former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, who plopped a heap of hot mashed potatoes next to them.

“Coming up!” the congressman would yell every few minutes.

Mfume had handed out meals to 231 people by 11:45 a.m. — and Our Daily Bread was only his first stop of the day. In the afternoon, the congressman was headed to the Maryland Center for Veterans Education and Training for another round of volunteer work.

When he finished his volunteer shift at Our Daily Bread, Mfume walked around the room, talking to people eating their meals, sharing fist bumps and posing for pictures. He said he wanted to set an example for the young people he served.

“I just want them to know this is what you’re supposed to do. You’re supposed to, whenever possible, find a way to give back to people,” Mfume said. “And me serving for a couple of hours is a small task compared to the sacrifice that so many people made. Dr. King was arrested 29 times … for what he believed in. So I’m here, and I’m happy to be here.”

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