I believe the way King has been made into the single icon of the civil rights movement is deeply problematic, especially when it comes to teaching the next generation.

It is virtually impossible to wade through hundreds of didactic hagiographies and find anything useful to use as a teaching tool in terms of children's books.

As a K6 librarian, I pull them all and put them up, but I also use the day now to inform students of the wider civil rights movement, especially the Little Rock Nine, Ruby Bridges, and other figures and events they are far more interested in learning about, and are much more relevant to their lived experiences.

The King stuff is just too "church father" laden to be very useful, except when telling King's story, which doesn't come even remotely close to telling the story of the civil rights and black liberation movements.

And Poppagator, I have a real problem with attitudes like yours that makes King "the" non-violent icon of our time. That is the problem, in a nutshell, with the ways those sorts of beliefs erase the actual history. As is Bobert's view that SNCC was associated with violence.
SNCC stands for "Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee". They were deeply principled, but often in disagreement with King and SCLC because of their use of more direct action oriented tactics than King was often willing to use.

Showing kids what those kids (and many other activist children) suffered for THEIR commitment to non-violence has a far more profound effect on them (and one they actually remember) than more sanctimonious preaching about the virtues of King ever will. And for that reason, I believe the holiday has lost it's meaning, and is now just another day off.

I don't usually use Black History month for the civil rights struggles. I use it to get at little known aspects of black history. I'm also doing a really cool project this year teaming with our science and global studies specialists this year to teach the Serengeti migration--a brilliant way to get kids to realize that Africa isn't about a bunch of people running naked through the jungle.