On January 20, 1986, the first Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Holiday was implemented after a 15-year campaign led by Coretta Scott King, Stevie Wonder, Rep. John Conyers of Michigan and Senator Edward Brooke of Massachusetts. Six million signatures were gathered for a petition to make Dr. King’s birthday a federal holiday. After a veto –proof vote of 338 to 90 in the House of Representatives, Ronald Reagan, 40^th President of the United States, signed the bill into law on November 2, 1983. Finally in the year 2000 every state in the Union observed the King National Holiday.

I have held on to a belief that the observance of the King Holiday would somehow transform our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. In his 1981 hit single, “Happy Birthday,” Stevie Wonder asked the question, “Why has there never been a holiday where peace is celebrated all throughout the world?’ Thirty years later, I’m curious about the same thing.

As a nation, we have traveled far since Dr. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn. So much has changed in 48 years. Great advances in technology, medicine and education have been achieved, for which I am delighted. The world has become smaller due to the speed of the transmission of information. It’s a great time to be alive and be an American in the early 21^st Century.

But some will argue that it is an uncomfortable time in our nation and rightfully so. There are a myriad of problems facing our nation. New troubles pop up daily. How can we be so advanced and innovative and still have so many poverty-stricken people. How is it possible to have so much violence in the streets of a nation that has not had war on its mainland in 150 years? Why so many sick people in a nation known for medical breakthroughs? Why so much disparity in access to what the social order yields in a land flowing with milk and honey.

The issues of today loom large, but I still dream that we the people can form a more perfect union. I believe that the ministry and message of the “drum major for justice” is still relevant. Decades have passed and the deputies and lieutenants of the civil rights movement are fading away fast, but we still have the blueprint for the cherished “Beloved Community.” Martin’s words still pierce the dark night of injustice in America.

In June 1965, Dr. King gave the commencement address at Oberlin College in Ohio. His title was “Remaining Awake through a Great Revolution.” As he spoke 50 years ago, he clearly recants to us now… “What we are facing today is the fact that through our scientific and technological genius, we’ve made of this world a neighborhood. And now through our moral and ethical commitment, we must make of it a brotherhood. We must learn to live together as brothers or we will perish together as fools. This is the great issue facing us today. No individual can live alone; no nation can live alone. We are tied together.” Forward together in unity!

 

Dr. George B. Jackson, founder and chairman Martin Luther King Social Action Committee

 

January 12, 2016