Martin Luther King’s Challenges
Reverend King Challenged America to Change Racial Attitudes
In 1963, Dr. King made his legendary "I Have a Dream" speech and set forth standards to change American's mind-set. In 2008 we ask, did he succeed?
A leader of the American civil rights movement and cofounder of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Dr. King was not only inspirational in affecting the national conscious of a nation but also the world. “Martin Luther King does not just belong to America, nor does he just belong to the African-American community; he belongs to the world:” said Clark Egnor, executive director of Marshall University's Center for International Programs, in the Herald Dispatch. Today the world can ask the question: was Dr. King successful?
Dr. King’s Challenges
On the 79th birthday of the slain leader, the world has had time to review the previous 44 years. Seven main points were presented by Reverend King in his legendary speech.
- Schools: The concept of “separate but equal” was overturned in the 1954 case of Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka; however, in 1963 many southern states still fought the ruling. Alabama Governor George Wallace blocked the entrance to the University to stop black students. "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever” was his policy. By the 1970s school busing was introduced. After several violent years, segregation morphed nationwide. Schools became segregated not by race but by economics. Statistics show that economically poorer neighborhoods have poorer schools with a disproportionate number of minorities living in those areas. “…while a substantial share of poor Whites live in middle-class, suburban neighborhoods, most poor Blacks… reside in much higher-poverty, urban, racially segregated areas;” Nancy McArdle said in a 2004 Harvard University study. Yet higher education has integrated very well - if the Blacks can get there.
- Housing: President Lyndon Johnson passed the 1964 Civil Rights Act that made racial discrimination in public places, such as theaters, restaurants and hotels, illegal. The1968 Fair Housing Act “prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental…of dwellings based on race, color, national origin….”
- Advancement: The 1964 act required employers to provide equal employment; furthermore, it created the Equal Employment Opportunity Act. Notable individuals who benefited include Tiger Woods, Thurgood Marshall, the congressional black caucus and presidential candidate Barack Obama.
- Voting: Poll taxes and literacy tests were eliminated in the south and black tax free organizations along with black lobbyists and packs were recognized. Three black US Senators were elected, and today there are 42 black members of the US House of Representatives. Today, African Americans in South Carolina not only have the ability to vote but can elect the first, serious black presidential candidate - Barack Obama.
- Southern Integration: Senator Richard Russell told the Senate in 1964: "We will resist to the bitter end any measure or any movement which would have a tendency to bring about social equality and intermingling and amalgamation of the races in our (Southern) states." Today work places and neighborhoods are integrated throughout the south. Cities like Atlanta have upper middleclass and wealthy neighborhoods dominated by wealthy blacks playing golf with wealthy white neighbors.
- Business: differing from advancement, this area is specific to the workplace. Derek Dingle says in his book, Black enterprise titans of the B.E. 100s: black CEOs who redefined and conquered American business,“…[it] benefited most those black men with vision…like white men before them….The movement [civil rights] allowed them to think success.”
- Equality:Still controversial, for this is a purely subjective area. No author could possible suggest how Dr. King would view equality today. However, the world has seen areas where color barriers have broken since 1963. Author Ashe’s victory at Wimbledon in England, Tiger Woods setting new golf records yearly, Michael Jackson - judged for his actions not his color, the first black cadets at the United States Coast Guard and Air Force Academies and Senator Barack Obama’s contention for President of the United States; are powerful examples.
The copyright of the article Martin Luther King’s Challenges in Race & History is owned by Frank W. Hardy. Permission to republish Martin Luther King’s Challenges must be granted by the author in writing.
