Martin Luther King’s Birthday
January 15 2008 - the 79th Birthday of the Slain Civil Rights Leader
Would Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. be satisfied with America today? His August 28th, 1963, "I Have a Dream" speech, gives us a hint.
Many men and women become icons during their time, recognized by individuals, governments and organizations. People of Peace hold a unique place of distinction. Individuals like Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Dr. Andrei Sakharov, the Dalai Lama, Pope John Paul II, Mother Theresa, Mahatma Gandhi, and Dr. Martin L. King Jr. were all recognized as great. All, except Gandhi and the Pope, were Nobel Peace Prize winners who set definite targets for humankind. In rare cases, history has given us an opportunity to examine whether the world has met those goals. Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the youngest recipient of the Peace Prize, is one such case.
The CIA World Factbook states that 92.5% of the planet’s population was not born or was very young, when Dr. King made his famous speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC. In 1963 one such person was now Senator and President candidate, Barack Obama. Only a few days before King's speech of "hope and change," Obama celebrated his 2nd birthday.
Dr. King’s Challenges
A leader in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Dr. King set many challenges in his August speech. Standards that “one day” these events would take place in America - his dream!
- Schools: “I Have a Dream that one day…little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.”
- Housing Segregation: “We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies…cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.”
- Advancement: “We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one.”
- Voting: “We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.”
- Southern Integration: “I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi…will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.”
- Business: “I have a dream that one day…the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”
- Equality: “I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
As the world gets ready to celebrate the birthday of this fantastic man, we can also examine whether his dream has been fulfilled. “Go back to Mississippi…go back to South Carolina…go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.”
Whether we feel the USA has “changed” or not; one fact glares at every American of voting age today. Black Americans, from the first state to secede from the Union during the Civil War (South Carolina,) can vote for an African American man (Barack Obama,) who graduated from the prestigious, mainly white, Harvard University; based solely upon the “content of [his] character” - not the “color of [his] skin.”
