Martin Luther King's memory
Grading ourselves on civil rights
Today marks the formal celebration of Martin Luther King, Junior's birth on 15 January 1929. The day is intended additionally as a day of service as well as reflection. Decades after the federal government enshrined this event, all of the states of the Union now finally observe this man’s birth and life.
Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, coming one hundred sixty years ago at the beginning of this month, was the measure by which King challenged the nation to consider our actions during his famous ‘I have a dream speech’ at the August 1963 March on WashingtonErin Hill, "Nearly 60 Years Later: Watch Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' Speech in its Entirety", MSN.com, 17 January 2023' .
King judged we had failed, in the century since its proclamation, to achieve Lincoln’s promises on several points. He powerfully pushed the country to renew the pledge towards racial equality not by a point-by-point condemnation of our flaws but by noting where we could act and acknowledging he dreamed his four children could live in a more equal society. King’s speech was electrifying. His death by assassination less than five years did not coincide with that achievement.
That March on Washington was sixty years ago this August. The George Floyd tragedy, the daily shortfalls in educational achievement in predominantly African-American school systems, the exhorbitant rates of murder in major U.S. African-American communities are sad testiment to the disappointment King would have today by using his own 1963 speech to measure progress.
We do, however, have some progress for which the nation deserves to celebrate and be wary of attempts to roll back. King’s birth is now a federal holiday observed also at the state level across the nation. A mere four months ago, Justice Katanji Brown Jackson assumed her position alongside Justice Clarence Thomas in seats on the U.S. Supreme Court, reminding the nation that Justice Thurgood Marshall was not a one-off for that lofty body because he argued Brown versus Board of Education in the 1950s.
The late General Colin L. Powell, along with current Chief of Staff of the Air Force Charles Q. Brown, Jr., shattered ceilings to the highest levels as full general officers. Republican Dr. Condoleezza Rice and Democrat Dr. Susan Rice served in the position (following General Powell who was first selected for the job twenty years after King’s assassination) of National Security Advisor. The presidents for whom these African-American women served wanted them both again to follow Powell as Secretary of State. The Republican succeeded while the Democrat failed but they both still rose far higher than other African American women in the nation’s history.
Several universities across the United States have had African American presidents along with the most senior positions in U.S. and international business.
We are still woefully short of African American representation in Congress relative to the population as we are in all of the few areas I cite. All of these leadership jobs need diversity to help achieve the equality for which King strove. My intent is not to cherry pick names to wash away the disappointment that Reverand King would have had that we still have not fully addressed our racial inequalities.
However, he would be proud and he would have celebrated the progress we have made while non-violently and eloquently pushing us to do better. We have the power to do better. FIN