By Dr. John Warren
A well-known pastor in this community often spoke of the Two Martin Luther King, Jr. celebrated every January 15th. One was the myth who is still portrayed as “having a dream and singing we shall overcome.” The other King, was the man who stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial an announced that America had given the Negro a bounced check and that it was time to make the check good. Those who play excerpts from the speech by Dr. King on the Mall that hot day in August, so many decades ago, only play the “I have a dream” portion of the speech. Dr. King was much more than the dreamer he is preserved as; he was a man like so many of us, who lived a life of inequality. So many of us still live that way today but without the dogs and water hoses.
Today’s weapons are much more subtle, painless and sometimes even pleasing. While mainstream and corporate America turns out to celebrate Dr. King as the “politically correct” thing to do, so many of the same people and entities the other 364 days of the year either ignore most Blacks on an individual and collective basis as no longer necessary or politically harmful. Other so called “minorities” have taken center stage following the model that so many of us fought and died for and then either forgot or loss interest. Too few of us are maintaining a collective struggle for the rights and inclusion of all of us.
The Dr. King that we remember and celebrate was a man of action as well as words. Where are our collective actions today? There were enough of us who could have and didn’t vote, to have kept Trump out of the presidency. We fail to realize that it was already determined in the Republican ranks that we would not come out to vote and that if conservative Whites did come out to vote, the nation could be and is now being led away from the very people who need government most.
Consider the gutting of the Voting Rights Act by the U.S. Supreme Court and the subsequent flood of Voter Identification laws in the states resulting in the suppression of Black voter registration in so many southern states that made voter identification cards difficult for so many who had voted since the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1964.
If we as African Americans are going to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., then let us be sure which Dr. King we honor and let us honor him today with a recommitment of hard work and dedication to the things he both fought and died for on our behalf. Let’s not sing “We Shall Overcome” and instead organize, embrace each other in spite of our differences and celebrate Dr. King in carrying the fairness and equality of his memory all year long and not just on January 15th with parades and meals.
Something to really think about instead of going shopping on this year’s holiday.
