TEXARKANA MAGAZINE A s America prepares to mark in remembrance the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., let us do so with a sober, abstemious (self-disciplined) mind. National sentiments and emotions seem somber and saddened as we approach sixty years since the March on Washington and the momentous “I Have a Dream” speech. The logic and reasoning of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. have outlived most hearers of his words that day in 1963, and they will continue to live on as an engrafted root of this great nation. The legacy of the King Dream has not become a nightmare, as some would have us believe, surely not, but rather a resounding chorus as loud as the roaring sea. The theocentric philosophy of Dr. King, which applied nonviolence as a strategy for change, centered on personal sovereignty and civic righteousness. What is the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.? The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. often quoted John Locke, St. Thomas Aquinas, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Reinhold Niebuhr, who was once known as the “Conscience of America.” Today, Americans have personalized both liberty and freedom
without being judged by their skin color. In Alabama, thanks, in part, to Nick Saban and the Crimson Tide, an entire state is solidified behind one team with one fight instead of standing in doorways blocking access to education. Are there instances of racism in America today? Sure, there are instances, but America is not a racist nation, and no American institution is off limits based on race. Yet, these manifestations of change are not the real legacy of Dr. King. In his “I Have a Dream” speech, Dr. King stated, “The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all White people, for many of our White brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.” (Library of Congress, 1963) Therefore, his legacy is not superficial or subjective only, but tangible and pragmatic. The legacy of the Rev. Dr. King is real and based in logic and rational thought.
Today, I contend that Dr. King’s legacy is one that continues to be centered on a Holy and Righteous God. Dr. King often describes the God of the Bible, who gave His Son as a living sacrifice that we might see and believe that “greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world.” A functional belief in God is paramount to an in-depth understanding of the future of America as a shining beacon of light where freedom and liberty are derived from a source other than man. Therefore, man can neither add nor take away these truths, which are self-evident. I also know that the legacy is based on cooperative economics and the construction of neighborhoods and communities that are self-sufficient and resilient. This, sadly, is often best seen amid tragedy as we pick up the pieces after a natural disaster or search for missing children who fall prey to a fallen
to clothe themselves in the liberty to choose or freedom to reject those things on which we agree or disagree. So, can we freely and liberally ask, what is the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.? Is it merely those statements that follow the words “I have a dream?” If so, then we have exceeded all of Dr. King’s expectations and should pat ourselves on the back for a job well done. In America, we see interracial marriages resulting in biracial children, which no longer result in ire but are a well-deserved outcome of our collective love that transcends race and skin color. We see that the red hills in Georgia hosted a contentious senate race in which the sons of former slaves and slave owners have nominated two Black men; one of whom will represent the state to which Dr.
King openly referred. We see that the state of Mississippi has fashioned itself into a beacon of opportunity and innovation that welcomes visitors from around the world with black and white faces and not in blackface. As Dr. King mentioned, his own four children have had the multigenerational opportunity to advance
world. We have shown the capacity to build together a community that is so free that the gates of Hell cannot prevail against it. The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was explicitly candid and open when he said, “With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we
THE LEGACY OF THE KING DREAM BY DR. CHARLES A. JORDAN
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BUSINESS & POLITICS
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