Today marks the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination, which offers the question, just where have we as Black Americans and America gone since that fateful afternoon in Memphis? Sometimes it things that things are different, but still the same in this place we call home. Almost as if Dr. King's fight was for naught.
There have been steps toward progression over the years, but there has been increased regression as well. On Dr. King's birthday, I usually borrow a line from Langston Hughes’ “A Dream Deferred” and make reference to just how Dr. King’s vision of collective unity has been lost in favor of individualist gain or a wayward society.
The “I Have a Dream Speech’ may be his most famous and iconic speech, but the night before his death, Dr. King delivered what has been dubbed “The I’ve Been to the Mountaintop Speech”, where he tells the audience “…I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land!”
Since Dr. King’s death that next afternoon, many have attempted to carry the torch he held so high, but none have even gotten close to the standard of selflessness that he set. He literally and figuratively gave his life for the greater good. Rev. Jesse Jackson, Rev. Al Sharpton and The Honorable Min. Louis Farrakhan have all made strides in pockets, but none has had the nationalistic appeal of Dr. King. Each of the previously named men have been flawed in their methods, not to say that Dr. King didn’t have flaws, but the way he galvanized a nation of millions has been beyond compare.
No one man or woman is ever going to be able to carry the weight that he did. It sort of reminds me another man they say lived 30 some odd years, worked tirelessly and selflessly for the improvement of those he lived amongst. Another man had gone too soon (not John Lennon). Dr. King may have been the reincarnate version that people have been praying and waiting for.
The challenge for us all is to be keepers of “The Dream”, carve out a place where we can work to be a voice for the people who don’t have a voice. Barack Obama, keeper of “The Dream”. Oprah Winfrey, keeper of “The Dream” and there are countless others, but more of US need to stand in and provide “The Dream” to those who don’t have the resources or tools to pull themselves up immediately.
In his new book, “April 4, 1968”, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson explores Dr. King’s internal (and external) war with his imminent death. He analyzes how Dr. King seemingly knew death was always around the corner, but continued to press on, because the cause was much greater than him. This week CNN has been running news reports relating to recently uncovered FBI files detailing J. Edgar Hoover’s disdain for Dr. King and the FBI’s surveillance to prove that he was a communist. There was no evidence of communism, but they were able to prove that he maintained extra-marital affairs and that he had gotten increasingly radical and was planning The Poor People’s Campaign to shine a light on a segment of America that is still largely overlooked, it’s poor. They found that privately, this man fought with his fame, was weary of the death threats and wished he could just go “preach in his little church”.
Do this for yourself, the next time that you’re in Atlanta or if you are living there today, go over to The King Center and go sit in Ebenezer Baptist Church and hear one of his sermons. If it doesn’t move you to want to do better, you’re a sorry piece of s…my mama is reading this, but you get the hint.
I purchased a book from Barnes & Noble last Saturday night and the total of my purchase came to $22.36. I handed the cashier two $20 bills and was returned a three $5 bills, two singles and a gang of change. Then it came to me, what if there was a $25 bill? That would make things so much easier. They could Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the $25 bill! I’d rather have that than the 3rd Monday of January off! It would constantly be in everyone’s conscious. Many great Presidents and contributors have been immortalized through currency, why not Dr. King? Hell, Benjamin Franklin is on the $100 bill! What did he do? Electricity? Some nigga on the plantation would’ve done that, without flying a damn kite though! I’m starting a petition to get Martin Luther King Jr. on the $25 bill!
Take a moment to read or watch a portion of this speech, really read and truly listen, then ask yourself, what can you do for the rest of the day, the rest of the weekend, the rest of your life to help get us to the Promised Land (and that’s not Cleveland)?
Full text of speech
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