Leonard Pitts: Remember MLK's call to action, 'Now is the time' Photo of Wei-Huan Chen Wei-Huan Chen Jan. 12, 2017 More Comments Print 3

1 of 3 Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Leonard Pitts Photo: Courtesy Cadence Enterprise 2 of 3 People crowd the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., ahead of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech on Aug. 28, 1963. Photo: STR 3 of 3 In this Aug. 28, 1963, file photo shows civil rights demonstrators gather at the Washington Monument grounds before noon, before marching to the Lincoln Memorial, seen in the far background at right, where the ... Photo: Uncredited, STF

Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Leonard Pitts says Martin Luther King Jr.'s call to action during the Civil Rights Movement is more relevant now than ever.

King famously said "now is the time" for social action. For Pitts, whose column appears on the Chronicle's editorial pages, that idea applied to 2017 means resisting the man who takes the presidency next week.

"We're in almost as great a place of urgency as 1963," says the 59-year-old commentator and author who is keynote speaker for the Annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday Celebration at the Rothko Chapel, taking place 5 p.m. on Sunday.

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Pitts has written on race and politics since the early 1990s, but he says never before has he felt such a sense of crisis in America. That's why King's messages should be read for their call to action, he says.