On this day 50 years ago, Dr. King opened what would become his most memorable speech by saying:"Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon of hope to millions of slaves, who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice...But one hundred years later...the life of the colored American is still sadly crippled by the manacle of segregation and the chains of discrimination."
Reviewing this opening paragraph by King forces me to ask: How much has changed from that day in '63 until now?
It would be impossible for anyone to suggest that there has not been significant progress in many respects for blacks in America over the past 50 years. Public accommodations, including hotels, malls and restaurants, are no longer separate. In '63 there were five black members of Congress, today there are 44 members.
In '63, the very thought of a black president was a fantasy but today, the Obama family has been a reality in the White House for four years.
Over the past 50 years, the black middle and upper classes have earned more academic degrees and money than at any time in history.
But a popular question that is often asked is what would Dr. King think if he was alive today? Had King lived, he would be 84 years old and very likely proud of the aforementioned accomplishments. But lest we forget that once the ink was dry on the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, acts that provided legal protections long overdue while eliminating Jim Crow laws, King switched his focus to poverty and the War in Vietnam. While King and President Lyndon B. Johnson shared smiles and hugs after Johnson signed the sweeping civil rights legislation into law in 1964 and 1965, the truth is that by 1967, the two men were not on speaking terms. Many of Johnson's white Democratic supporters who had previously supported King began to shun him after he called Johnson's escalation of the Vietnam War immoral. Further, as King began touring Appalachia and other hamlets of poverty in rural white America, he began to realize what we now know, which is that poverty knows no color and that in a nation with the material wealth that we have, how is it possible that people can go to bed and awake hungry, or ill afford to become ill as they lack adequate medical insurance when they are sick; that people are stuck in sub-standard housing or no housing at all?
These questions are often politicized and answered along well defined "liberal" vs "conservative" cliches with conservatives blaming liberals for wanting government to solve all problems and with liberals blaming conservatives for lacking compassion.
But these typical political arguments do not matter as much as what is within our hearts as human beings. Whether one is a Christian or not, the age old response from Cain after he slew Abel, "Am I my brother's keeper," is still very relevant. Should I be happy with my blessings if I know that others are struggling to survive? Do enough of us even ask anymore what can be done to ameliorate the issues of systemic poverty? Or, to query whose job is it to assuage the societal ill that is poverty; is it the responsibility of the government and if so, is it done through programs like the WPA and CCC under President Franklin Roosevelt? Or, is it done through the private sector, a sector, mind you, that is bent on making profit for its shareholders. While many corporations have foundations, how many of those foundations are specifically focused upon poverty and the sub-issues that result from poverty?
To that end, I suspect that King, today, would realize that the American dream is still very much a work in progress for a great many Americans. I believe that he would be disturbed by the increases in crime in communities across America including the scourge that is violent crime in black communities. I think that he would be dismayed that even in the wake of Trayvon Martin's murder that more young black men die from gang related violence than by being killed by law enforcement or what was the norm in his day, racist whites. And last, I believe that King would certainly take some black parents to task for failing to raise their kids in a manner to help them move upward.
But I also believe that King would be critical of the still pervasive systemic racism that finds police focusing more on minority communities for a number of criminal offenses. I believe that he would speak out about income inequality among men and women as well as red-lining and other traps, such as the balloon mortgages from the late 90's that saw disproportionately more minorities struggle to pay back home loans that lenders knew or should have known would lead to foreclosures.
And while it may dismay some of President Barack Obama's supporters who call this president the fulfillment of King's dream, I believe that an alive King would be dead set and vocal in opposition to the president's militaristic stances over the past four years, stances that once again has America on the brink of war in Syria simply because the president drew a red line on chemical weapons that he was right to denounce while refraining from hinting at possible American military involvement.
Toward the middle of his "I Have a Dream" speech, Dr King said, "We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now." That urgency still exists as far as many of the issues that I touch upon in this blog. Indeed, the very ideas of liberty and freedom, which King interposed during his powerful finale 50 years ago by projecting a series of "let freedom ring" posits, remain lofty concepts that revert back to the Founding Fathers. This week, Time magazine placed Dr. King on its cover and called him a "Founding Father." High praise, yes, but well deserved when considering how King's words served to rattle the conscience of the most important demographic in America---the "fence sitter," one who is lukewarm and neither cold nor hot. The ones who knew back then that the images of young black men and women being beaten senseless on television sets was wrong and yet did nothing to address it.
Today, the lukewarm reside among us all with respect to eradicating poverty and espousing a foreign policy that does not make us the world's cop ad infinitum. So as we all commemorate and smile about how far we have come since Dr. King revealed his dream in '63, let us commit ourselves to working to end the nightmare that far too many Americans and those who depend us for leadership around the globe continue to experience.
Chuck Hobbs, Esq., host and lead commentator for Generation NEXT is a trial lawyer, award-winning freelance writer and lecturer based in Tallahassee, Florida. During the past decade he has appeared in a number of high profile cases including the 2003 gambling trial of former Florida State University quarterback Adrian McPherson and the 2006 Florida A&M University (FAMU) Kappa Alpha Psi hazing trial, both carried live on Court TV; the 2009 Rachel Hoffman murder case featured on Dateline NBC as well as his work as co-counsel in the 2011 wrongful termination of FAMU Marching 100 Band Director Dr. Julian E. White, who was initially fired and quickly reinstated by the university following the hazing death of drum major Robert Champion.
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