In Remembrance

        “I have a dream that my four 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.                  
                                          - Martin Luther King Jr.

   

In this blog we’ll start a discussion on the topic of inclusion vs. exclusion and will elaborate further in a subsequent blog referencing a Tiffany and Co. ad campaign. And what better way to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his National holiday Monday than to give some insight into the history of his life and times. If there ever was an eternal optimist, one who believed love and equality was the answer, it was Dr. King. Of course, like many other martyrs and visionaries of peace, he was abused, condemned and ultimately died because his light shone too bright.

                  “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

A Brief History Lesson

Martin Luther King came from a family of pastors, with his grand dad and papa both having frequented the pulpit. Is it any wonder his oratory skills were so awe inspiring? He continued that tradition in the beginning of his career, but by accepting leadership of the first non-violent demonstration in 1955, it changed both his course as well as the course of discrimination in America. This bussing boycott protesting the segregation of blacks and whites lasted 382 days and ended in a victory. On December 21, 1956, after the Supreme Court declared the laws requiring segregation on buses unconstitutional, Negroes and whites rode the buses as equals for the first time. During the days of this boycott, Dr. King’s home was bombed and he was subjected to much personal abuse, as well as being arrested, but he came out the other end as a Negro leader of the first rank.              

Elected in 1957 as president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization leading the then escalating civil rights movement, King implemented principles he took from Christianity along with operational techniques from Gandhi, proving his openness to cultural and religious tolerance.  All the while he drove the registration of Negroes as voters and in one of his major coup d'état’s, he directed a peaceful rally in Washington, D.C. with over 250,000 people coalescing. It was here he delivered his famous address, "l Have a Dream".

              “I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

Martin Luther King conferred with President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Johnson; he was arrested upwards of twenty times and assaulted at least four times; he was awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963; and became the symbolic leader of American blacks but beyond that, a world figure.

“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.”

Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to receive the Nobel Peace Prize at age thirty-five. When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize money to further racial equality and the civil rights movement in America.

“I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its Governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as brothers and sisters.”

On the evening of April 4, 1968, standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, he was shot and killed.

Look Better, Feel Better, Live Better

Looking at what Dr. King did and sacrificed, including his very life, for inclusion and non-discrimination, for oneness and brotherhood and for equality for all, one must ask: What have I done lately to further this cause? Listen, we are not all Martin Luther King material, but it doesn’t mean that we can’t take consistent baby steps in keeping the soul of togetherness emitting its message of love and hope. Together we can.

“...we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing, ‘free at last!...‘“                                                                                                             

                                         ~ MLK, “I Have a Dream”

PS: Contributing to inclusion, as well as damning exclusion, starts in our homes. What do we model for our children? It is essential that each generation shows progress in the march towards equality and acceptance.