As Peace Education College teacher, I would always include the name of Martin Luther King, Jr. as one of the heroes who wanted to defend the rights of people. He made sure to pursue this DREAM in a peaceful manner.
The full text of Luther’s Speech is as relevant as ever. Please google for the full text but for our purposes, excerpts are in order to highlight the “many- splendored reality” of this speech, generations will always treasure whatever your race may be.
“Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation …but one hundred years later, the Negro is still not free…
One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition… 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. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. ..
Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children…
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”
With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My country, ‘tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.”And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. .. black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”
Having highlighted very deep insights from a man called MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. there is no reason why we can not dream with him. Although Luther’s dream is not fully realized he has embedded in our hearts and minds the constant need to keep the fire of democracy ring and forever keep alive the spirit of equality.
In the United States, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is celebrated every third Monday of January. This year, it falls on January 21, 2019.