November 13th, 2006
Dr. King
Dr. King’s Dream
This morning at 5:30am on CNN I heard the following, “The rich and famous are gathered to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Junior!” My wife informed me that former president Bill Clinton spoke. Billionaire Oprah Winfrey was also present. I wondered about Clarence Thomas, the only black sitting on the supreme court and a person who benefited greatly from Dr. King’s movement. Did Judge Thomas participate?
USA Today’s had a headline that read, “Dr. King’s dream comes true.” No doubt this is a proud moment for the King family and I’m sure they are all proud to bask in the sun, from the bright light of the King legacy.
If Dr. King were alive he would not be 80 years old yet. We all know of people in their late 70’s that have a very sharp mind still. A few things to consider.
Dr. King turned down the money from his Nobel Peace Prize in order to help the poor.
When Dr. King lost his life, he was fighting for the garbage collectors in Memphis.
Dr. King was among the first to speak out against the war in Vietnam.
Would he celebrate his honor with the rich and famous, or the regular folk he cared so deeply about?
Would he have joined George Bush and both sides of Congress in endorsing their vote for war?
Would Democrats in Congress have voted for the war if Dr. King had lived?
Would he feel his dream had come true?
Dr. King may have taken more pride in the every day people that follow black in business and the every day business owners. He would want for us to be judged by the content of our character and not the color of our skin.
Progress has been made, but there is still so far to go. As blacks in business , we have moved pass blaming racism for our short comings. We accept the fact of hope and acknowledge if the mind can conceive and believe then we will achieve.
November 14th, 2006 at 3:05 am
Great post Jim, thank you. As someone from a lower middle class background – and the first I know of in my family to attend college – I would like to share something my step-father said a long time ago that I will always remember. One of my sisters had qualified her praise that my nephew had landed a job with a good company “even though it is blue collar”. My Pop replied evenly, with that tolerant, teaching way he still has at age 80 that “blue collar put food on the table, clothes on your back, and a roof over your head my sweetie”. There are a lot more of us every day business owners and regular folk out here.
November 14th, 2006 at 9:33 am
Thank you for your comment.I have always taken pride in my blue collar roots, your Pop was right and today many blue collar business owners are close to or have exceeded 6 figure incomes.
November 14th, 2006 at 11:43 am
The Martin Luther King Memorial was a dream for me and many other Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity members for many years. I remember talking about the fact that we should have a memorial to Brother King with the Good Brother and at the time Alpha General President James R.Williams at the 1978 convention in Atlanta. At the time I had no idea it would cost this much and I naively thought the government would pay for the cost of construction. Ten years ago when it became more than a dream through the efforts of Brother James Williams, Brother Milton Davis, President Bill Clinton and thousands of other Americans both Black and White, Democrats and Republicans, rich and poor, Jews and Gentiles, I remember writing one of a few $100.00 checks and praying that God will help us find a way to help us raise the other $99,999,900. It has not been easy and at the time the southerners and Northerners who continued to hate the legacy of Brother King put many obstacles in our way. But as Dr. King said “Truth crushed to earth will rise again and a lie cannot live forever”.
This past summer when I was in DC with my family and we visited the Lincoln memorial and the Washington Monument I tried to find the track of land that had been put aside on the tidal basin for the MLK memorial, and became somewhat disappointed with my inability to find the site and the lack of African American heroes present on the Mall. At that time I did not know we were this close. So it is when things seem worse that we must keep the spirit and renew ourselves to the goals that have been set. It is also significant that Dr. Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. is the first minister to have a memorial on the national mall. Job well done America.
November 14th, 2006 at 10:11 pm
Well put, I remember a march on Washington to make Dr King’s birthday a holiday. Stevie Wonder wrote the song “Happy Birthday” The President was not there that day, nor were many of the rich and famous. The media lied about the crowd size but that effort paid off as well.