Martin Luther King Day...I'm Still Dreamin...
This is a post that I had done some time back for Martin Luther King Jr. Day...but I felt it needed to be on the site.
Monday was a day of celebration in remembrance of the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, but for some it was just an extra day off before starting a shortened work week.
For me it was a time of reflection. With that said...let me take this opportunity to share some excerts from Dr. King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." It was written on April 16, 1963, while Dr. King sat in a jail cell after being arrested for participating in a protest march that revolved around the injustices blacks in Birmingham endured.
The letter is often overshadowed by King's monumental "I Have A Dream" speech but ranks second in popularity and notoriety. In this eight page letter, which Dr. King wrote on toilet paper in his cell, he addresses both white and black clergymen who approached him with a letter saying the protests were untimely and unjust.
This letter details not only the philosophy of nonviolent direct action, but it also gives insight to his prophetic personality, now etched on the pages of not just African American history but American history.
When we think of Dr. King we need to remember the past that African Americans have evolved from and take into consideration that there are many people, white and black, who are ignorant to our dark past and America's history of racism and segregation....
Imagine living in a time where African Americans were forced to use seperate facilities, seperate lunch counters, drinking fountains and bathrooms. It is hard for to fathom now, but we must recognize the past...
Dr. King writes, "When you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers; when you have seen hate filled police men curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your 20 million Negro brothers smoothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading white and colored; when you are harried by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly in a tip toe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next; there comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair."
This is the time that Dr. King and our predecessors lived through so we may have the freedom we have today. Many things have changed in our society, but many issues are still there. Just as Dr. King came to recognize, racism is an issue! It is deeply embedded in the history of this country, and if we not become cognizant of it, if we do not confront it, we will fall victim to it, and the often repeated phrase "People who are ignorant of their past are doomed to repeat it."
Remember the words of Dr. King..."Injustice anywhere affects justice everywhere!"....Until the next time...Be real, Be you, BMoore.
Oh yeah the BMOORE REPORT has just begun....
Thanks for influence Pops.
