What would America be like today without the Emancipation Proclamation? What would America be like today without the Civil Rights movements? What would America be like if race still separated the nation as it has in the past? Would America be the great nation that it is today if its people permitted an issue so unjust and ignorant as the color of ones skin to hinder its progress as a whole, like a stick in the spokes of a wheel? No. Granted, a lot has changed since the days of segregation, race is still issue in America. An issue that must be realized and addressed if America is to continue progress towards unity. We must focus on what we have learned and continue to learn from the experiences of the African American community and make them the lessons and experiences of everyone in America, so that we as a country can be one great nation rather than a divided one.
Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the most famous, if not the most famous, activists in the Civil Rights Movement. But he was much more than just an activist, he was a leader. One of the greatest leaders the world has ever seen. He gave African American people and white people hope during a time when the our nation was but a broken puzzle, pieces strewn about, separated from the whole by laws of segregation and hate. It was this message of hope that kept the spirits of the oppressed afloat, in a sea of unjust laws born from a cesspool of hatred. He brought people from different areas of the country together to act as one and to take action against this hatred with direct but non violent action. For peace and tolerance are the greatest enemies of violence and hate. It was this message of hope and the results of direct non-violent action that brought people together and began to, slowly but surely, rebuild the puzzle of justice in America.
In his “I Have a Dream” speech, Martin Luther King, Jr. reflects on the past and the trials of African Americans. He also tells of the present situation in America at the time. The inequality and the violent eclipse cast upon the African American people. But his speech is not about the past or even so much about the present. It is about the future. A future that King portrays vividly to his listeners to ignite their emotions and feelings. To ignite a belief. To ignite a flame of hope to spread into the future. He tells of a future where whites and blacks live together harmoniously. A future where America stands together, united as a people, rather than a broken nation. Where the words of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence reign true for all Americans alike, blind to the physical differences of different people. Blind, just as justice should be. A future for America that can only be achieved through the continued trials and efforts of its people now. That justice and equality can no longer wait to shine on America and that this was not just a dream but a reality to be realized. That freedom would finally ring across America as a whole.
The writings and speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr. prove to us that change is possible. Through his words, millions of people realized hope and a sense of unity and a way to use these things to fight for justice and equality while retaining dignity and avoiding falling victim to the same fallacies of their oppressors. That change can be reached when we believe in it and as long as we do not stand idly by and watch without action, like statues, but take into our own hands the situation so that we my mold out of it justice for all. But this change is only possible together.
Change. Change is a word that has been heard a lot lately. Most recently in the presidential election. Change has been President Barack Obama’s slogan since he began running and is defined as making the form or nature of something different from what it is or would be if left alone.
It is no surprise that the election of President Barack Obama is a historic moment in America’s history. Obama is the first African American to be elected president of the United States of America on top of many other racial achievements that he had made previously in his political career. His election has proven to us that change can happen in this country. Change that has crumbled a deeply rooted racial barrier. The election of the first African American president will bring many more great changes to our nation.
In “A More Perfect Union”, President Obama’s speech, he talks briefly of his background as a child of a black man and a white woman. And how the issue of race surfaced its head during the political campaigns for presidency. Then he talks about the statements Reverend Wright made about race and how they are not productive to the progress of unity. Because that is what President Obama sees as one of the chains still holding this country down. Racism. He acknowledges that race is still an issue in this country. That blacks are still being discriminated against, after all this time, and that some whites feel punished for a crime that that they had no hand in and that these beliefs are continuing to bind the legs of progress for this country. Race is taking away from the bigger picture. It is taking away from education, health, the future and its generations, because it continues to create a sense of “me” and “you” rather than “us” so that we can focus on the issues that effect the whole nation. We must continue the march started by the ones before us so that change can be made towards a more perfect union.
President Obama and Martin Luther King, Jr. both share very similar views on racism. King knew that the country could not grow if it remained divided by race just as President Obama knows. They both talked about the rights immortalized by the Constitution. Rights that were denied to people, and continue to be denied to people, that they are addressed to. Both Obama and King recognized the importance of children. That they are the future and that racism can not continue into their generation and the generations after them or it will be a forever disabling cycle. That racism diverts our eyes from the real issues, especially in politics and positions of power. But even in the midst of hate around him, Martin Luther King, Jr. loved America and knew racism had to be abolished, just as slavery, if the country was to progress as the great nation he knew it could be and it is that love for his country and those beliefs that President Barack Obama shares with King. President Obama knows that it is of the utmost importance to continue the efforts to do away with racism to perfect our union.
America and all of its people, all of us, have the groundwork for a perfect union laid before us. But it is a long road that we are on and we can not continue to let racism weigh us down. How long can we remain on the same road before we run out of gas? The end of that road is not the end of our journey, but it is a road we must complete if we are to reach our final destination.
