No one had seen its like in Washington D.C. before that time. People numbering 250,000 gathered at the Lincoln Memorial to hear Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speak of his dream where, as he said, his four children “would not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” It wasn’t only African Americans who were there; people of all kinds and cultures were there, and they came by bus, train and plane. In an era without cell phones or tweets, it took about eight weeks to pull the gathering together, and life in America began to change yet again.A Spiritual Breakthrough
For some of us that history lives in our memories, not in textbooks. It’s good to think again of the events and people that create openings in our lives. It’s good to remember that great strides are only beginnings and that they must be encouraged and kept up lest they fall back into the commonplace again. Dr. King’s speech was not only a spiritual breakthrough but a lens through which people in the United States could see where they had been, where they were then, and how far they had yet to go.
Much to do...
We’re better at knowing who we are, fifty years after that time, and we still have many more strides to make. It’s a little easier to see ourselves more as members of a shared world rather than as strangers separated by physical differences…a little bit easier. We still have much to do. We owe it to the immense vision of Dr. King…and to ourselves as human beings living in times that demand the best of us.
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