By sharing Martin Luther King Jr. in color, it reminds folks that the civil rights era was not that long ago. The black and white photos gives white folks especially the sense that it was back in the stone age. It wasn't. Many of our relatives lived this era, they're still here.
I am mostly alarmed at the constant refrain that we had a "bad year" - that has been the case since like, 2015 now. It seems more likely that our society has entered a period of chronic failure and inhumanity, and that if we want to exit, we have to actually do something about it