Dreaming –
1.experience dreams during sleep.
2.indulge in daydreams or fantasies about something greatly desired.
Every year since his assassination, we honor the life, legacy and achievements of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Through speech, song, pageantry our children step up to microphones all over America to recite Dr. King’s most famous speech.
I was one of those children. in 1975, seven years after his murder, I was chosen to deliver the iconic “I have a dream” speech for our annual assembly honoring the civil rights leader. I remember listening to the speech hundreds of times trying to pick up every nuance, trying to match the tenor and inflection of his voice, trying to match his cadence with my cracking 13-year-old voice.
On the day of the assembly, I delivered my rendition, receiving a standing ovation from the diverse audience of my peers, a few parents, and teachers (I was part of the first desegregated class in Evanston public schools). The same Evanston that recently made national news for approving “Reparations” …a story for another time.
Mr. Patterson, the first Black male teacher I every had, who taught Language Arts and Mrs. Williams, the Home Econ teacher met me in the wings with tears streaming down their collective faces saying how proud they were, praising my performance. I think the following Sunday, I was asked to deliver the oratory again in church to a flurry of Amens and praise Gods…
After 47 years, while listening to a news piece this morning about the Foley & Lardner, LLP – Martin Luther King, Jr. Oratory Competition. I was struck by the question; why are we still dreaming about civil rights, equality, and justice? What bothered me most was this Lilly white law firm has been hosting a competition for little Black 4th & 5th graders being judged on how well they articulate, with this year’s topic “How would Dr. King assess our progress in achieving his vision for America?” If this ain’t some Richard Wright – Invisible Man shit, I don’t know what else is!
A representative from the Disney Dreamers Academy said, “A wish is something you have to hope for, a dream is something you pursue.” Today, as the nation celebrates Dr. King, we must ask ourselves are we any closer to his dream when we are no closer to a voting rights act? Or are we just wishing that systematic racism and the ongoing efforts of racists to oppress us will just disappear?
This piece is riveting and thought-provoking. I think our biggest challenge as a people is that we do more wishing, thinking, & hoping than we do dreaming, planning, & executing. We’ve had centuries of behavior modification (to put it mildly) that affects our ability to move with impact collectively, and I dare also acknowledge that this challenge presented itself not just because of abusive manipulative conniving colonizers; but also, because we came from different tribes, tongues, empires, & regions of Africa with our own history of division, battles, conquering, spoils, and enslavement of each other (as is true at some point in history for every other region & peoples of the world). Colonizers drove the nail of division and devaluing even deeper into us when they forced us to be one people, take their surnames, and adopt one tongue. Until we can collectively heal from the trauma we’ve experienced in this “great nation” we will always to challenged in our efforts to properly unite, demand, & enact the change we deserve to see in the US.