A Dream Deferred? Remembering Dr. King's Call to Action
Fifty years ago today, Martin Luther
King Jr. mounted the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and delivered a powerful,
visionary, speech. It wasn’t the only
speech delivered the day of the March on Washington, but it is the one we remember. It was a moment in time that helped propel
the next phase of the Civil Rights Movement. The March itself was meant to be a catalyst that would lead to furthering justice for the African American Community. It was meant to send a signal to Congress and to the White House that the time for action had come. Today, many are stirred by the vision of a world in
which color of skin doesn’t determine one’s place in society, but the content
of one’s character. As powerful as this
dream was, and even though it helped lead Congress to pass important Civil
Rights legislation, have we really
reached the point where we can say that the dream is fulfilled?
You might answer: “well America elected an African-American as
President, doesn’t that mean we’ve moved beyond race? I know that many in the Euro-American
community (that is those who are white) would like to believe that we have
moved into a post-racial society the evidence seems to suggest otherwise. The attempts in certain states to
disenfranchise voters and the fact that jails and prisons are
disproportionately filled with persons of color should at least raise a few red
flags. The unemployment rate and high
school dropout rate among persons of color is much higher than among
whites. Why is this so? What barriers still exist? What attitudes mark our conversations?
Fifty years ago, in August 1963, I
was but five years old. I didn’t hear
the speech. I didn’t know anything about
Martin Luther King. It probably wasn’t
until well after Dr. King was assassinated (when I was ten) that I even learned
of him. But, I have been paying
attention since then.
I wish we could say that fifty years
later the dream had come to fruition.
That it hasn’t doesn’t mean that we should give up the pursuit of the
dream. I wish full equality had been achieved. I wish that the churches didn’t continue to
be segregated. I wish I could say that
there wasn’t within me signs of racism.
Is it overt? No. Is it there?
I am certain it is. In what way
does it exhibit itself? I would venture
to say that it comes in the form of paternalism. It expresses itself in my tendency to believe
that I am essential to the cause of freedom.
That is not to say that I should abdicate my responsibilities, but it
does mean entering into the conversation with all due humility. It means recognizing that I really don’t know
what it’s like to live as a minority – to experience racial profiling or to be
denied the right to vote or live as I please.
On this day we need to celebrate the
vision that Dr. King laid out for us. We
need to embrace it, but before we embrace the soaring refrain of freedom, we must remember that on that the speech was only a first step toward equality. Dr. King offered a dream, but he also issued a warning:
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
I suspect that we live some place in between this warning and the refrain of justice. Yes, if we are to reach the summit we must recognize that we've not yet reached that moment. But, on this day, it is appropriate that we join with Dr
King and consider that vision:
And
when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from
every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be
able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men,
Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and
sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last!
thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
Amen!
If
we’re willing to acknowledge how much further we have to go to reach the dream,
then we can fully appreciate this message that resonates as much today as it
did a half century ago.
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