The fierce urgency of now
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I just had a driveway moment, sitting in my 10-year-old car, listening to a 37-year-old speech.
How far has the nation traveled since August 1963, when the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a speech that posterity has reduced to four words?
I don’t have to tell you what they are. I may have to remind you that those words didn’t begin the speech, but ended it. Before Dr. King said “I have a dream,” he ordered America to settle its account with its black citizens. “We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now,” he said.
The “I Have A Dream” speech was so much more than a call to brotherhood. It was a defiant rebuke to those who questioned the Negro’s insistence upon equality and racial justice.
Racial integration was not the ultimate goal. King made sure his listeners, both present and future, would understand that struggle went beyond equal opportunities. The prize was justice.
Listen to the speech. You will hear him warn that dissatisfaction ran deep and must be quenched.
“We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro’s basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one,” he said. ” We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
Turn up the volume as he talks.
“There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.”
As I sat in my cluttered car on a gloomy Cleveland afternoon, I couldn’t help reminisce on where I stood a year ago. I was in front of the Washington monument. I was one in 2 million, straining to hear Barack Obama as I’m sure those who attended the March On Washington strained to hear Dr. King. I snapped photos, hoarding images of joy and hope to sustain me when cynicism seemed to triumph.
Sad to say, I’d given up. I felt defeated and confused, wondering how my faith had evaporated without even a drop to remain as evidence. Then I turned on my radio and heard Dr. King’s voice, rolling through the decades.
How far have we traveled? Far enough to elect an African-American president, but short enough for a 37-year-old speech to sound like it was written yesterday. How far have we traveled? Far enough that I could reflect on victories, but short enough that the speech sounded like it was written for me.
I was hopeful a year ago, but today I have more. I am pragmatic, understanding that hope is nourished by action. And action is stoked by dedication. We cannot grasp the past; we can only reach for the future. But we can hold on to now and keep moving forward.
Thank you, Dr. King, for reminding us. Thank you.
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4th last paragraph, second line, a n, should that be man?
That aside, thanks to you too. Reporting inside stuff is hard, but we need it, thanks. Afi, ever wonder where it would all be today if King and Kennedy were not assassinated? I don’t know, I like to think we would be more moral, a better standard of mores than we have in the big cities. I guess it’s of no good to wonder stuff like that, we are still alive, up to us to do things, to help the young to know how to carry themselves. Thanks!
Thanks Joey. I corrected the error. I think you answered the question “what if?” As Erykah Badu pointed out in her song Drama, “We’re still living.”
In response to another comment. See in context »http://trueslant.com/markstricherz/2010/01/18/if-king-had-lived/
In response to another comment. See in context »They can’t take away education, or faith. I heard it when I was little, and I have to pass it on. We have to have both, thanks Afi. Beautiful writing.
I had a moment of understanding a larger rule today, reading Nick Kristof’s story of the Yemani girl who got a divorce at the age of 10. It mentioned that her family were ashamed at first, but now that her best-selling book has made her the main breadwinner, “they treat her like a queen”.
Them that has the gold make the rules. My realization is that ALL liberation, in the end, comes not from the barrel of a gun but the thickness of wallet.
So by that cold, quantitative measure, how far have we come since that FORTY-seven (not 37!) year-old-speech?
From a bit of googling, I gather that black families took home 54% of white families in the 50’s, up to 64% by 1970. And now? From the wikipedia on “income inequality”, either 84% if you average both sexes, or 71% considering only males. (Black and white women’s average income is only a few percent apart!)
So there’s progress, but not nearly what you’d hope for. There’s been so much more progress in “mindshare” (1963 had zero black generals, no black TV stars, not even local news anchors; no black mayors, and on and on) than in a different life for the Common Man.
Still, the change from 54% to 84% is worth celebrating, for five minutes. Then it’s back to the barricades. My favourite line from The Speech? “This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism…”