AC Phoenix, January, 1992, Page 7
The Legacy And Dream That Have Reached Around The World
By Patricia Smith-Deering
Phoenix Managing Editor
When a life is lost through
violence, regardless of the cause,
one can only hope that some
ultimate, useful purpose has been
served. When the life of the
Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. was extinguished by the
vengeful gunfire of an assassin, the
hope was that his dream of peace
and racial harmony would survive
his mortality.
While the progress that had been
marked by Black Americans during
and for some years following his
death seems now to be marred by
negative United States Supreme
Court decisions, a resurgence of
anti-Black activities, and odier steps
backwards, the dream has not been
lost. In fact, the impact of what Dr.
King started is being felt, even
now, around the world.
One only has to look at the
breakup of the Soviet Union. After
seven decades of oppressive
dictatorships and tyranny, the
Soviet Union no longer exists.
Those independent countries that
have and are still emerging and
shaping their own destinies cla
mored for the freedom, the civil and
human rights that Dr. King, and
those who supported him, marched
and clamored for in America.
The world joins this nation in the
celebration of the birthday of a man
who is recognized as one who
symbolizes the eternal struggle of
mankind to be free, to determine
who and what will govern their
right to exist. And despite all those
individuals and governments (like
Arizona) that struggle to diminish
the global contributions and impact
of Dr. King’s actions, there is no
disputing the momentum that he
generated.
Over the last decade, forces have
been at work in America to snuff
out the dream, to restore the status
quo that existed when Dr. King
seized the opportunity and de
manded freedom and justice for all
people. No other person has
achieved the social upheaval and, as
a result, the social, moral, judicial,
and ethical changes that this noble
human being effected.
This occasion, celebrating his
birthday, is also one to remember
some of the words Dr. King spoke
to inspire dedication to what has
become a worldwide cause
c’ele'bre.
“You ought to believe something
in life, believe that thing so
fervently that you will stand up with
it till the end of your days...”
“Everybody can be great, because
anybody can serve. You don’t have
to have a college degree to serve.
You don’t have to make your
subject and your verb agree to
serve. You don’t have to know
about Plato and Aristotle to
serve...You only need a heart full
of grace, a soul generated by love.”
“Our hope for creative living in
this world house that we have
inherited lies in our ability to
reestablish the moral ends of our
lives in personal character and
social justice. Without this spiritual
and moral reawakening, we shall
destroy ourselves in the misuse of
our own instruments.”
“In a multiracial society no group
can make it alone. It is a myth to
believe that the Irish, the Italians,
and the Jews...rose to power
through separatism. It is true that
they stuck together. But their group
unity was always enlarged by
joining in alliances with other
groups such as political machines
and trade unions. To succeed in a
pluralistic society, and an often
hostile one at that, the Negro
obviously needs organized strength,
but that strength will only be
effective when it is consolidated
through constructive alliances with
the majority group.”
“I have a dream that my four little
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.”
***
We, as a nation and even as a
people, have not yet fully captured
that dream. But, the legacy
demands that we keep that dream
alive - not just during the cele
brations of Dr. King’s birthday, or
during Black History Month, or on
the commemoration of his death,
but all year long, every day until
that dream and all it implies and
expresses is realized.