By Wendy Doromal ©Janaury 2019
"No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream." Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Although Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is celebrated as a national holiday next Monday, his birthday is tomorrow, January 15th. He would have been 90 years old this year. There are a handful of people who have inspired me and shaped my outlook on life and the world we live in. Dr. King is at the top of the list. Since I began teaching, his poster, and those of other inspirational figures– César Chávez, Eleanor Roosevelt, Rosa Parks, and Mahatma Gandhi– had a prominent spot in every classroom in which I taught. I love that there is a Martin Luther King conference room in our union hall with framed pictures of this great American.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of my earliest heroes and he had a profound impact on my life. Every day after dinner I sat with my parents and watched Walter Cronkite deliver the news. Images from those evenings are imprinted on my mind like a slide show from the 1960s. Scenes from the horror of the Vietnam War; marches and riots sprung from the civil rights movement; boycotts of lettuce and grapes led by César Chávez; the insanity of the nuclear arms race; stinging words from politicians like Alabama Governor George Wallace; hopeful words from righteous heroes like Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; and the senseless assassinations of American leaders.
By the time I was in high school, I was no longer watching the scenes from the television, but was living them as I demonstrated for civil rights, women’s rights, equality and peace. A youth minister at my church advised me to channel my outrage with injustices and world events by helping others. He asked my parents for permission to take me to the Salvation Army in the North End of Hartford, CT to tutor inner-city students. I went with him every week for over a year.
After I learned to drive, I recruited friends to go there with me. While other teens waited for the weekend, I waited for Tuesday and Thursday evenings to go to the Salvation Army. It was the highlight of my week. I helped a group of junior high school boys with their English homework. They taught me about their lives, which was a world away from my own. I brought the boys cookies that I baked, books, and school supplies. They gave me gifts of poems that they wrote or drawings that they created. One young boy invited me to his nearby apartment to meet his mom.
The last night that I was ever at the Salvation Army was April 4, 1968. That night changed the direction of my life. The director came to the table where I was sitting with my students. I knew by his pained facial expression that something was terribly wrong. He said that we had to leave immediately. Dr. King had been shot and riots had broken out in the city.
I felt a sense of urgency to leave and at the same time a desire to stay with the students, as we were rushed to the car. The choice was not mine to make.
Our escape went well until we reached the first stop light. There a group of angry young men came out of the shadows to pound our turquoise Volkswagen Beetle that was decorated with peace signs and flower stickers. They rocked the car back and forth in an apparent attempt to overturn it with us inside. One enraged teenager threw an object that slammed into the back window. The red light was ignored, the accelerator was hit and the city was quickly behind us as a blurred memory of screaming voices, pounding fists, shattering glass and black smoke from the fires set by the angry rioters.
My parents never let me return to the Salvation Army, despite my tearful pleas. I agonized for months over the fact that I never had the chance to say goodbye to my students or to thank the director who told me that I would make a great teacher someday. My parents could keep me out of the North End of Hartford, but they could not stop me from traveling a path to fight for change and social justice. The death of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was actually the birth of my social activism.
Many years and many protests later, in 1983, I boarded a bus with some religious leaders and friends to attend the twenty year anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington, the "We Still Have A Dream March for Jobs, Peace and Freedom March on Washington." On the long bus drive from Connecticut to Washington, D.C., we discussed the ways that Dr. King's dream had not been fulfilled.
It is sad that over 50 years after the 1963 March on Washington and Dr. King's moving speech, we are still discussing the ways that Dr. King’s dream still has not been realized for many who live and work in the United States. In fact, if anything, the American Dream is even more out of reach for too many of our citizens.
King fought for civil, economic, political and human rights. He crusaded to end racism and discrimination and establish equality. King's civil rights movement was founded on the principle of nonviolence. These are the same themes that are at the heart of today's protests and campaigns.
Poverty
“The rich nations must use their vast resources of wealth to develop the underdeveloped, school the unschooled, and feed the unfed. Ultimately a great nation is a compassionate nation. No individual or nation can be great if it does not have a concern for ‘the least of these.”
Poverty is increasing and the middle class is disappearing. The divide between the haves and have nots is expanding. As educators each year we see more homeless students, more students on free and reduced lunch and more students who come to school hungry. Elected officials have passed legislation to increase the wealth of the richest and decrease the wealth of the poorest. We must reverse this trend.
Dr. King’s words spoken fifty-five years ago words ring true today– “There is nothing new about poverty. What is new, however, is that we now have the resources to get rid of it.”
Voting Rights
“Through the efforts of scope and a strong voting rights bill we are confident of breaking the shackles which so long have crippled the Negro’s advancement in the South. Our battle cry is “Let My People Vote.”
Dr. King campaigned tirelessly for disenfranchised African American citizens who were subjected to literacy tests, poll taxes and harassment when they tried to register to vote and is credited with getting the Voting Rights Act of 1965 passed.
Today there is still voter suppression as was seen in both Georgia and Florida’s mid-term elections. Still, in the last election, Florida voters also passed Amendment 4, which was a victory for not just over 1.4 million former disenfranchised felons who can now register to vote, but it was a victory for democracy. Also, hopeful is the fact that twenty Florida counties had referendums for tax increases to fund public schools. All twenty passed, which should send a message to lawmakers that the voters value public education and voted to fund Florida’s future.
Discrimination
“Let us all hope that the dark clouds of racial prejudice will soon pass away, and that in some not too distant tomorrow the radiant stars of love and brotherhood will shine over our great nation with all their scintillating beauty.”
Inequality and discrimination have made a resurgence in recent years. Innocent people have been shot by police officers, not because they committed a crime, but because of the color of their skin. Discriminatory legislation such as the anti-immigrant laws that target Muslims, asylum seekers and immigrants mirror the unjust and racist Black Codes of the post-Civil War era. They mock our constitution and the principles upon which our country was founded. Instead of advancing our country forward, these un-American laws take us backwards towards Jim Crow laws and times that shamed our nation –times that leaders of moral conscience like Dr. Martin Luther King worked to end.
As educators, we know that discrimination, inequality and racism have no place in our schools. Our school doors must remain open to every person regardless of their immigration status, religion, language, race, sexual orientation, gender identity or country of origin.
Nonviolence
“Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon, which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.”
King's civil rights movement was founded on the principle of nonviolence. A gun took the life of Dr. King, just as guns take the lives of tens of thousands of Americans every year. Mass shootings in our nation’s schools have become commonplace. Yet, the notion of gun reform is dismissed as policy makers embrace the notion of arming teachers or making our schools fortresses.
It is time not just to speak about these issues and debate these issues, but to act upon them. We can honor Martin Luther King, Jr. every day by putting his words into action.
©January 2019
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