From Dr. King to President Obama

On an August afternoon in 1963, Dr King, the Baptist preacher and civil rights leader, drew the largest crowd the country had witnessed as he delivered his "I have a dream" speech, a call for racial equality that resignates still to this day.

Yesterday, under rainy skies, America's first black president stood on the same spot; at the same time of day, to reflect on the progress that has been made towards Dr. King's dream exactly 50 years later.

This is an important day, an important historical event.  I am not making a political statement of any kind.  I'm thinking about this event from the perspective of a mother of children growing in a world where the color of your skin can shape how you are viewed and treated.  

I wonder how Dr. King might have felt knowing that within 50 years of his speech an African American president would be standing exactly where he stood addressing the American people on the issue of race and equality; just as he had.  Would he be shocked at our progress?  Would he be proud of where we are today?  Or would he be enraged that we still have so far to go?  Would he be saddend that the topic of racial equality pertaining to jobs, income, representation in positions of power, representation in prisons is still such a dominate issue in our society today?  I can only imagine.

One of my favorite exerpts from Dr. King's, I have a Dream speech is this:

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

As a mother of 2 African American daughters this is one of my biggest concerns.  At times I worry that my girls will have to have that much more strength of character to receive the same treatment in the world as someone with white skin.  I'd like to think this is just me being sensitive for them, but I know, in some ways, this is very true.  And this weighs very heavy on my heart, this huge responsibility to somehow teach and mold my girls so that the world will see how amazingly wonderful they are on the inside when many will never be able to get past the outside. 

            50 years ago, Dr. King also said;

"I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together." 

 

This is really what it's all about.  This is the one thing that has been the same 50 years ago, 50 years from now, and forever.