Black History Month offers Nassau County an opportunity not only to reflect on the past, but to appreciate how deeply the national story of civil rights is woven into our own communities. This is not history that happened somewhere else. It happened here — in our houses of worship, in our neighborhoods, in our courts and classrooms — and it continues to shape who we are and who we aspire to be.
One of the most powerful reminders of that local connection is the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s visit to Nassau County. In 1967, King spoke at Temple Beth-El in Great Neck, urging people of different faiths and backgrounds to see the struggle for civil rights as a shared moral responsibility. He also spent time in the Lakeview–West Hempstead area during the height of the movement. Those appearances underscored a simple truth that still resonates: the fight for equality was never only a Southern story. It was a suburban story, too — and Nassau County was part of it.
