The Promissory Note - My Thoughts About Martin Luther King and His Legacy
Posted: Sunday, January 17, 2010
by Roschelle Nelson
In a few days our country will celebrate the memory of a truly great man, Martin Luther King.
This national day of remembrance was hard fought and long over due in being recognized. And now that it's here what does it really mean?
The school children love the idea. I know I certainly was all for anything that meant a day away from sentence structure, algebraic and chemical equations, and history lessons.
Words about how far we've come as a people, as a nation, as a world will echo throughout the minds of the listeners for most of the day. We will swell with pride realizing how much things have changed and share an optimistic vision about a not so distant future when the color of your skin won't make a difference.
I never had an opportunity to actually see Dr. King. His voice and images have only come to me through recordings of civil rights marches, speeches, and other events that he participated in during his short life.
When I was a child his portrait greeted me every time I visited my grandmother's house.
I was and still am the promissory note he traveled to Washington, D.C and spoke of over 40 years ago.
.....In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. 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." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.....
I would be dishonest if I said things were no better than they were 40 years ago.
I have no idea what it feels like to not be able to eat where I want, walk where I want, sit where I want, or say what I want - but my mother does.
Being just one generation away from oppression no human being should ever have to endure is what I'll think about on the day we honor Dr. King and every other day until racial injustice, intolerance and ignorance are like dust under my feet.
A day when your accomplishments, values, abilities, and moral convictions matter more than your color, gender, or sexual orientation.
For when that day comes I'll know that our promissory note has been satisfied - in full.
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Top-level comments on this article: (1 total)I love and admire Dr. King. And yes, I speak of him as alive, for what he has done lives on in full in the great strides we have taken as a nation to think more realistic and adult-like in our understand that skin is so superficial a thing to make judgments by. Seeing one inferior or an enemy who should be killed because of color is equal in stupidity to the taking of a life because someone has a wrong-colored handkerchief dangling out of his back pocket.As an English professor, I've read hundreds and hundreds of essays, and the only one I find perfect in many ways is Dr. King's Letter from Birmingham Jail. He uses great logic, reason, passion, compassion, and poetry to express the ideas therein. I find its logic and persuasion without flaw. He was truly gifted from above with great talents for a great reason. And as a matter of fact, he did his job so well that it took me numerous reads to get through it without tearing up. I remember when I first taught the essay that at times I'd even tear up in class. And this was his intent, to make the white members of the Christian Coalition, and all whites, feel it, feel it as best as he could communicate the injustices blacks suffered at that time. We will also soon celebrate the 50 year anniversary of the Greensborough NC, Woolworth’s Lunch Counter sit in. An interesting time for this country indeed.Dr. King was a great intellect, theologian, poet, and man. He was almost solely responsible for the paring of physical with political freedom for blacks. He carried a great responsibility coming into this world, lived his life with great purpose, and sealed his fate in blood. It was Dr. King himself who said, “If a man hasn’t discovered something he would die for, he isn’t fit to live.” He was a serious man of great honesty, integrity, and import. May we all learn to walk the walk with the compassion and dedication he did.Please log in to respond to this comment.Thanks for commenting Jeff and what a beautiful comment, indeed!!Please log in to respond to this comment.
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