Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
“Thousands of Americans on Saturday commemorated the 60th anniversary of the March on Washington, a pivotal event in the 1960s U.S. civil rights movement at which Martin Luther King Jr gave his galvanizing ‘I have a dream’ speech.” Reuters
The right highlights the racial progress that has been made over the past 60 years.
“[King] spoke of a hope that his children would one day live in a nation where they would ‘not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.’… King’s most famous words, so foundational to our understanding of a just society, are somewhat controversial today not because of what he meant then but because of how they are used and perceived now…
“Our discourse over race largely centers on whether racism is mainly systemic and present or interpersonal and past. Some on the American left worry King’s words are misused to characterize debates about race as merely about personal prejudice. To them, the tendency ignores the systemic realities of modern day racism and how, in the words of Ibram X. Kendi, ‘the only remedy to past discrimination is present discrimination.’…
“Traditional liberals and conservatives are certainly right to highlight differences between King’s understanding of race and that of present-day anti-racists. A sense of defying and transcending the anemic categories of race permeates his language. While identity politics and anti-racism encourage us more and more to cast quick judgements of one another on the basis of our racial identity, King viewed man as made in the image of God, and situated the locus of human value on that claim.”
John Wood Jr., The Dispatch
“In the 1950s, Rev. King 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 distinction of separation by skin color… Graham and King defied the norm and shared a ministerial prayer on a platform in Madison Square Garden in 1957…
“This historic event is just one example of evidence that MLK’s dream is not something set apart from the American Dream but a vision for all people deeply rooted in the promises that make up America. Increasingly, this vision is under attack – most 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 can 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.”
Dr. Alveda King, Fox News
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) writes, “My grandfather went from picking cotton to watching his grandson pick out his seat in Congress in his lifetime. If that’s not progress, I don’t know what is. These achievements are no longer the outliers — they are the stories of millions of Americans… When we ignore or downplay the history of men like my granddaddy and the progress his family made, we erase the progress we’ve made as a nation…
“While those on the left, like the authors of the 1619 Project, dwell on our original sin as a nation, they fail to showcase the redemption that has followed. I believe King would be proud to bear witness to the gains we have made. He would encourage us to maintain the path to progress with the same hopeful optimism — keeping in mind that whatever we seek to achieve can only be done with faith in America.”
Tim Scott, New York Post
The left highlights the racial progress that remains to be accomplished.
The left highlights the racial progress that remains to be accomplished.
“The [1963] march offered average Americans, along with public figures like then-President John F. Kennedy and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, the closest thing to attending a mass movement meeting they ever would see. While the president and attorney general watched from the White House, they both marveled at the importance and eloquence of King’s speech…
“Democracy is a journey and never a destination, perhaps the most important lesson left for us by the March On Washington. No civil rights legislation was passed in 1963, but it set the table for all the watershed legislation that subsequently passed…
“If we do more than commemorate the March, if we strive to embody the simultaneously radical and pragmatic spirits that enabled by King, Rustin and so many others, we can find hope in the actions this generation takes toward fulfilling a dream that remains alive in our own time.”
Peniel E. Joseph, CNN
“It’s striking how much the ‘jobs’ part of the March on Washington has dropped out of memory — because that was absolutely core to the message the marchers wanted the rest of the country to hear. Start with the day’s program, which included a 10-point section called ‘What We Demand.’… Number seven is ‘a massive federal program to train and place all unemployed workers — Negro and white — on meaningful and dignified jobs at decent wages.’…
“One of the most popular placards carried by marchers read, ‘Civil rights plus full employment equals freedom.’ King himself paired economics with civil rights. One hundred years after the Emancipation Proclamation, he said, ‘The life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.’…“Once you understand the core purpose of the March on Washington, it’s clear that its dream remains, at best, half fulfilled.”
Jon Schwarz, The Intercept
“As of 2019, the last year with complete data, the median wealth of Black households was just $9,000—compared to $160,000 for white people. These figures have improved little since King's time. In 1961, African Americans had 12 cents for every dollar of wealth of non-Black Americans. By 2019, that figure had risen to just 18 cents. At that rate it would take 780 years for Black wealth to equal non-Black wealth…
“It will take bold policy proposals with deep and sustained investment to bridge the divide that was created through policies and generations of disinvestment… A federal jobs guarantee, for instance, could help close the income gap, while universal health care would spare millions of low-income households the threat of bankruptcy over a health scare…
“In our government's responses to the Great Recession, the pandemic, and the war in Ukraine, we've seen that billions or even trillions can be found when we're ready to take decisive action. It's far past time to take that decisive action on racial economic inequality and finally turn King's dream into a reality.”
Dedrick Asante-Muhammad and Chuck Collins, Newsweek
