“I have a dream.”
Martin Luther King Jr. said that on August 28, 1963. He was at the March on Washington. What was King’s dream? He wanted equal rights for all.
King hoped “sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together.” And that “little Black boys and Black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls.” He dreamed for his kids too.
“I have a dream that my four little children will ... not be judged by the color of their skin.”
King used his voice to make these dreams come true. He spoke out against unfairness. In 1955 he helped lead the Montgomery bus . Until then, Black people could sit only in the back of a bus. The boycott worked! Black people could sit in the front.
King traveled the country. And he stood up for anyone treated unfairly. “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” he wrote.
King called the worst tragedy not “ by the bad people” but the silence “by the good people.” He wanted everyone to speak up. “We will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.”
King died in 1968. Yet his message goes on. Do you see unfairness? Speak up. Do you see cruelty? Use your voice. Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Keep making King’s dream true.
Updated January 14, 2022, 5:01 P.M. (ET)
By Russell Kahn (Russ)
