More than 14,000 days later, how are we doing?

My Thoughts

By Dr. Bill Atwood

(Updated: Wednesday, April 02, 2008, 5:39 PM)

It is hard to believe the amount of time that has passed us by. This Friday, April 4, will mark the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. In the 14,610 days that will have come and gone, what would our progress report look like in our fulfillment of his "dream."

Certainly the fact that the current leading contender for the Democratic Party's nomination for the office of President of the United States is a man of African decent would indicate some improvement in how people of color are viewed. There are many examples of non-white folks leading the way in many different arenas of life in the United States; sports, the arts, business, politics, courtrooms, medicine, technology and religion to name just a few.

These areas have been opened up in ways that the good doctor could only dream about.

We cannot rest on our gains, as we still have a great deal further to go until we get to the point where race, religion and creed are not used to judge in an effort to hold back somebody from attaining their goals.

King's dream has been discussed in this column and other columns over the years and while they are important for us to discuss, I want to take time to discuss the effects of that particular April 4 of 1968.

I was 70 days away from turning 16 and was looking forward to getting my driver's license. Just a few days prior to the assassination, I remember watching the television when President Johnson announced that he would not run and would not accept his party's nomination for the presidency as he wanted to be free from the politics so that he could get his legislation passed and try to bring an end to the war in Vietnam.

America was hurting and America was reeling from the growing dissent about the war and about civil rights concerns. The United States had witnessed the murder of the president on that horrible November Friday in 1963 as he rode through the streets of Dallas, and Americans were beginning to question a great deal about our society. Those of us older than 50 may remember the protests that were taking place all over the country and it seemed to many that the very fabric of our lives was being torn apart.

On the first Thursday morning of April of that dreadful year, James Earl Ray decided that he would change history and like the coward that he was, hid in the shadows and waited until his prey came out of his motel room. On that morning in Memphis, Ray fired his high-powered rifle and silenced a Noble Peace Prize winning orator and activist.

Being 15, and having lived through one political assassination wherein every adult around me kept stating this wasn't how things were done in America, I had a different view. It was beginning to look like this was how change would be coming about, and I was little confused by it all.

I knew that many disagreed with the methods of many involved in the national civil rights movement and that many folks lumped all those marching for civil rights into one big group. But I really listened to what each was saying. I remind folks who I know, I was a nerd then as few 15-year-old kids were news junkies as I was, but I listened to the news and read the papers as a boy.

The black community, or the Negro community as they were called then, were divided into differing camps with some wanting the peaceful approach advanced by Dr. King, and others wanting to follow Stokley Carmichael's "Burn Baby Burn" policy. I could not see where people thought that King was out of line when he said words such as, "judging a man by the content of his character and not the color of his skin."

But the assassination of Dr. King brought about a great deal of shock, anger and sadness in America. There were riots in the streets of large cities, and I wondered with my 15 year-old brain how supporters of Dr. King could justify the non-peaceful protest over the death of a peace-preaching man.

My brother was in the hospital that evening following a surgery and we had to drive from our home to downtown Los Angeles to visit him. My parents were concerned, as they did not know what to expect in L.A. and the reaction of the folks as the hospital was in a central part of the city. There was no trouble at all. What I did witness were people somber as they listened to the televisions in the hospital, and I watched the grief on the faces of the black nurses and orderlies who saw a man they thought was going to help relieve some of their suffering gunned down. A great deal of hope was taken from many in that act of cowardice shown by Ray.

But my dad reassured his two sons that this really wasn't the way things were done in the United States and that Dr. King's death was only an end to Dr. King's life but not an end to Dr. King's ideals and beliefs. Martyrs outlive their killers and their enemies and the movement would continue.

My dad once again reminded my brother and I that it was ballots and not bullets that was the correct way to effect a change in politics. Little did he expect that before my 16th birthday he would be telling me this same message again after the shooting of Bobby Kennedy in June.

Gandhi and King had the right idea-that peaceful protest can change the world.

Share the dream!