By Simon Gonzalez
It’s been 53 years since 250,000 men and women, boys and girls, black and white, filled the National Mall to hear Martin Luther King Jr.’s stirring “I Have a Dream” speech.
King’s purpose was “to dramatize a shameful condition.” That condition, of course, was blatant, often brutal racism, inequality, and the nation’s shameful exclusion of black people from the promises of our founding documents.
“When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir,” King said on Aug. 28, 1963. “This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the ‘unalienable rights’ of ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’ … Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.”
Injustice was easy to spot at the time of the speech. Discrimination was rampant and overt, especially in the South.
A few months earlier, George Wallace had taken the oath of office as governor of Alabama, promising “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.” Exactly three months prior to the speech, three black students silently protested segregation by sitting at the “whites only” counter at a Woolworth’s in Jackson, Mississippi. Not only were they not served, but they were subjected to horrific abuse, both verbal and physical.
We’ve come a long way in 53 years. There are no longer fire hoses trained on blacks, different water fountains, restaurants and hotels for blacks and whites, “separate but equal” facilities. We have a black president, freely elected and then re-elected by the people.
And on Monday, people around the nation and in New Hanover County celebrated a day honoring the slain civil rights icon for the 30th consecutive year — the same man who now has his own memorial in the capital and some 900 streets named after him across the United States.
The sickness of racism is still alive in people with diseased minds. Just last June, Dylann Roof killed nine people at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina, hoping to ignite a race war. But such actions are quickly condemned. White supremacists now lurk in the shadows of society, on the extreme and not in the mainstream. Clearly, much of King’s dream has been realized.
Even so, black people still feel marginalized and excluded from much of the American dream. They speak of injustice and disenfranchisement, and institutional racism. From such feelings spring movements like Black Lives Matter and protests, violent and otherwise, in the aftermath of police shootings, justified and otherwise.
It can be hard to understand and see that perspective, and to empathize. It’s easy to focus on the excesses of the movements and the counterproductivity of riots, to stridently argue — Too much government! Not enough government! — about who’s to blame for why blacks are worse off than whites in every meaningful statistical measure.
The problem with getting defensive, though, is that it ignores a very real problem that is obvious for those with eyes to see. Look around. Drive through Wilmington, and see where the poor neighborhoods and the government housing projects are and who lives there.
Look up the demographic makeup of underperforming schools in New Hanover County. Check out the poverty rates. Research the 1898 Wilmington race riot, the closing of Williston High School, the 1971 arrests of the Wilmington 10 and their lingering effects.
A few months ago I asked local attorney George Rountree why he invests his time and treasure in the minority community. The need, he said, is too great to ignore.
“It cries out for it, as stridently, with a pitch of rancor and disappointment, that is difficult to ignore, if you listen to it,” he said.
The King Center in Atlanta held a week of events leading up to Martin Luther King Day under the theme “Remember! Celebrate! Act!” Great idea. Let’s remember King’s dream, celebrate how far this country has come, and act to keep making progress.
Action is the responsibility of people in both the white and the black communities.
A major focus of Wilmington youth mentor Vance Williams’ work is finding black men to serve as role models and mentors, to encourage youth. More need to get involved. Tennis great Lenny Simpson needs more than the current one black volunteer at his One Love Tennis clinics.
Whites can search out the many organizations working in the minority community and not just offer their money, but give their time. They can find volunteer groups like the ones from predominately white churches that join with a black pastor to pick up trash and serve hotdogs in the housing projects the first Saturday of every month.
These actions might not stop injustice or solve institutional racism. But they do provide hope and opportunity, and make a difference.
