Rev. Dr. Martin L. King Jr. remains a bright ornament in the heavens -- an inspiration to rise to moral heights in the face of danger or evil. In Alabama, Birmingham Commissioner of Public Safety Bull Connor had his fire hoses, and Dallas County Sheriff Jim Clark his cattle prods, but Dr. King prevailed with justice fortified by courage.
His sermon to judge people by the content of their character, not by the color of their skin, still thunders like a hammer on an anvil today. But are we listening?
Tribalism flourishes. Stereotypes abound. Everyone is pigeonholed. Marching to your own drummer is verboten. This is contrary to Dr. King's vision of America in which your station in life is determined solely by character and accomplishments, nothing more. We know that vision is unattainable because where and from whom you are born is serendipitous. But both materially influence your journey in life. To the extent we achieve the goal, to that extent we are a just society.
Dr. King's dream is not an impossible dream. We all know people who look on us as people, not as Black or white. That type of colorblind outlook, however, is not instinctual. It is learned -- largely by example. In the 61 years that have elapsed since Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" address, racism has diminished. The Klan is not flourishing. The White Citizens' Council is a museum piece. A white Justice of the United States Supreme Court wrote in dissent for the ages in Plessy v. Ferguson (1896):
"In the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens. There is no caste here. Our constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens. In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law. The humblest is the peer of the most powerful. ... The arbitrary separation of citizens, on the basis of race, while they are on a public highway, is a badge of servitude wholly inconsistent with the civil freedom and the equality before the law established by the constitution."
On Jan. 10, the U.S. Department of Justice revised an earlier finding in declaring the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921, in which a prosperous Black neighborhood in Oklahoma was destroyed and up to 300 people were killed, was not committed by an uncontrolled mob but was the result of "a coordinated, military-style attack" by white citizens.
We have elected a Black man president of the United States for two terms with no assassination attempts. We have elected a Black woman - who later was the 2024 Democratic presidential nominee -- vice president of the United States with no assassination attempts. A Black woman now sits on the U.S. Supreme Court, the highest court in the land. In the 118th Congress, the Congressional Black Caucus sported 60 members. The minority leader in the House of Representatives is Black.
But racism is still alive, albeit in a less virulent form than during Jim Crow. Who can forget the violent and vile Unite the Right mob in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017? Who can forget the brutal homicide of George Floyd in Minnesota? Who can forget the cold-blooded murder of Sonya Massey by a white police officer near Springfield, Illinois?
We will never witness perfect relations between Black and white because mankind is made of crooked timber. But perfection should be the goal. As poet Robert Browning wrote, "Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?"
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