This year marks the 60th anniversary of the iconic I Have a Dream Speech my uncle, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered in 1963 from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. As he spoke to crowds of hundreds of thousands, all hopeful Americans eager to see the fulfillment of America’s promise of equal rights, he laid out his vision: “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.”
Uncle M. L.’s words spoke then and speak now to the very important point that America’s ideals and founding values are not the enemies of equality and opportunity. Rather, they are noble principles deeply rooted in our individual and national character, and it’s up to the brave men and women in every day and every age to live them out.
He also wrote a book in 1967 to share his vision for the future of America and centered around the theme of hope. It was the last book he ever published, titled Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? In Rev. King’s mind, human beings should not be divided by skin color. Based upon scientific facts and the biblical foundation of a one blood/one human race in Acts 17:26, all talk of the various “races” of people was foreign to him. Instead, he understood that we are the one-blood human race, made by the hand of God, all in His own image and likeness.
In the 1950s, Pastor Martin Luther King, Jr. and Evangelist Billy Graham made an unprecedented decision to move ahead of the tide and embrace genuine reconciliation. At that time in history, church services were governed by a separation by skin color. In other words, the socially engineered erroneous concept of separate human races supported segregation of corporate worship according to the division of separate races and skin color. How confusing.
Graham and King defied the norm and shared a ministerial prayer on a platform in Madison Square Garden in 1957. The rest is history. This historic event is just one example that MLK’s dream is not something set apart from the American Dream, but a vision for all people deeply rooted in the promises of America.
Increasingly, this vision is under attack—especially by the political figures that would pretend to be the first to stand up for minority groups. Rather than championing the values of liberty, justice and equality that unite us as the one-blood human race, America’s voices of division seek to divide and categorize us along every available fault line and pit us against each other. We see this in Critical Race Theory, gender ideology in our classrooms, BLM riots in our streets, and the unprecedented political manipulation in our legal system.
Evidence of this dire state of affairs can be found in the open letter I recently penned with numerous other faith leaders in America: “We are in a cultural revolution against God and country; one determined to normalize the things of darkness and to replace God from our nation at all costs. The counter-cancel-culture revolution’s agenda is fueled by sin. We have come together across denominations and faiths to declare we will not be silent.”
As Christ taught us, and as my uncle knew all too well, evil will always be around, even to the end of time. Today, that evil looks like the hate and division we see on our TV screens and social media.
As godly Americans with hearts filled with jubilee, we can reunite around Rev. King’s vision, which he shared from the Lincoln Memorial 60 years ago: “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. This note was a promise that all men—yes, black men as well as white men—would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Rev. King had a deep appreciation for American values, he longed for people to reject divisive voices telling them America was the enemy. We face those same voices today, but as believers, we know that we as a people can unite once again around Christ’s love and the noble vision of true equality America promises us all. Then, and only then, can we return to a nation that cherishes all life in the one-blood human race equally, from the womb to the tomb.
Dr. Alveda King serves as Chair of the Center for the American Dream at the America First Policy Institute.
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