The Fierce Urgency of Now

Black people are present in mainstream American life today in ways that would have been unimaginable just fifty years ago. My family lived in Atlanta from 1967 to 1969, and my parents were part of a group of blacks and whites who created the city’s first integrated preschool. My parents and their friends worked for a lot of change back then, but I don’t think they seriously entertained the thought of a black president being elected in their lifetime. Well, it may seem like a very long time ago, but we just had an African American who served two terms as president. Things do change.

But—and this is a big but—the story around change is complicated. The United States in many ways is still a prisoner to its racist history, one that has not been adequately acknowledged and confronted, and which continues to compromise the full membership and participation of blacks in American society. The long, depressing litany of injustices includes the police shootings of unarmed black men, the school-to-prison pipeline, and the ongoing wealth gap between black and white households. There are many more examples. Fifty years after his death, Martin Luther King would see much progress, it is true, but he also would see a nation still being torn apart by racial animosity, made worse by an era of public incivility and political debasement that I believe he would have found hard to comprehend.

This is why celebrating the accomplishments of the MLK Scholarship finalists gives me such joy tonight. You all represent a belief in a better future—the same spirit that drove Dr. King and so many others during the civil-rights movement to challenge the wrongs of their time. They took risks and made sacrifices because they knew this country was headed in the wrong direction. They didn’t wait for the leaders at the top to make things right. They wanted a better world for their children, so they got to work in their own communities, pushing for change and demanding justice.

It is impossible to look at our current political circumstances and not be concerned once again about where our country is heading. At the highest levels of government, we are seeing the breakdown of some of our most basic civic values, representing a threat to the foundations of our democratic institutions. The failure of our political and economic systems to offer profound commitments to social justice has become urgent and obvious. Social justice, and its intricate relationship to racial justice, is the aspect of Dr. King’s legacy that lies at the heart of the work these scholarship finalists have been doing on campus and in the community. Despite the progress that has been made in society—real progress, which has benefitted many of us here tonight—these young people know that more needs to be done, and that this is no time to be complacent.

Martin Luther King was a visionary leader who led this nation out of the worst aspects of its racism. He was a healer who brought people together to move the country toward a better vision of itself and a better future for its children. He was also, at the end of his life, a critic of certain aspects of American capitalism. Not because he was a communist or a socialist, but because he was a Christian who saw that the dignity of men and women could not be sustained if they were viewed as a means for the enrichment of others. Like the students we honor tonight, let us not forget those who continue to struggle and for whom this society has been more ruthless and less kind. Let those of us who have a voice use it to support the voiceless, to call out the hate and vulgarity of our current political moment, and to remind ourselves of what our democratic ideals truly call us to be as a nation. ◽