Nearly 60 years after the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his 鈥淚 Have a Dream鈥� speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, a Howard University professor said his students still find the address relevant 鈥� once they read the entire speech.
Marcus Board Jr., associate professor of political science at Howard University, points out that the first part of King鈥檚 speech was a sharp critique of the nation鈥檚 treatment of Black Americans.
In the first segment of his address, King said Black Americans fighting for civil rights could never be satisfied 鈥渁s long as the Negro is a victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality鈥� and called for accountability, saying 鈥淎merica has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked ‘insufficient funds.'”
Board said students are not familiar with that part of King鈥檚 address. Instead they鈥檝e been taught the part of the speech that talked of King鈥檚 dream of a society where racial harmony has been achieved. Board said students have absorbed what he called 鈥渢he disingenuous version of Martin Luther King, what Cornell West has called the 鈥楽anta Claus-ification鈥� of Martin Luther King.鈥�
Board said that King鈥檚 dream is of course a desirable goal, but that, 鈥淭he reality is, you don鈥檛 get that society without sincere work and without sincere change.鈥� Using a term in King鈥檚 speech, Board said, 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the 鈥榝ierce urgency of now鈥� he talked about.鈥�
When asked how he鈥檒l be spending the 60th anniversary of the March On Washington, Board said he鈥檒l be thinking about the conditions of today, and how the speech shows how much work remains to achieve the kind of society King described.
Board said he鈥檒l be 鈥渢rying to think about how we get people to believe, as so many of us have before, and to not give up the hope that history can change, and that justice is possible.鈥�
On an optimistic note, Board said, 鈥淲e don鈥檛 necessarily have to change the entire world. We all have very local communities that we鈥檙e a part of, and we can change those communities every day.鈥�
