WHAT KING TAUGHT US

As printed in The Record on Sunday, January 14, 2007

By Nia Gill

In 1955 Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., then a twenty-six year old young minister, was selected to lead and organize the Montgomery Bus Boycott, he clearly describes the moment and his words still resound today:

We are here in a general sense because first and foremost we are American citizens, and we are determined to apply our citizenship to the fullness of its means. We are here because of our love for democracy, because of our deep-seated belief that democracy, transformed from thin paper to thick action is the greatest form of government on earth. But we are here in a specific sense…..We are here because we are determined to get the situation corrected.

A little more than fifty years ago in Montgomery, Alabama it was a crime for an African American to take a seat at the front of the bus. Under the leadership of Dr. King, African Americans took an unprecedented stand to undermine institutional segregation by organizing a bus boycott. For thirteen months these citizens walked to work or obtained rides from a small car-owning black population, rather than being subjected to a segregated public transportation system. This transformed the Civil Rights Movement from a strategic legal offensive, to encompass non-violent social action which served as a vivid moral witness to the world. Dr. King’s leadership in the Montgomery boycott catapulted him to the forefront of this social movement.

In the Civil Rights Movement, Dr. King was not a leader of a group of dissidents. He was the leader of a coalition of citizens who were tired of being “trampled over by the iron feet of oppression”, tired of being “flung across the abyss of humiliation to experience the bleakness of nagging despair,” and “tired of being pushed out of the glittering sunlight of life’s July and left standing amidst the piercing chill of an Alpine November.”

Dr. King’s deliberative and contemplative leadership makes him a poignant figure in history. He was strategic and well versed in the issues, challenges, and dangers faced in ending racial segregation. There was no pronounced glamour in leading the Civil Rights Movement. It was dangerous. He understood the principles of democracy and the responsibilities of leadership. He consciously agreed to make the ultimate sacrifice. Dr. King’s life teaches us that ordinary people can do extraordinary things.

So today, let us not just commemorate the life of a citizen and American hero, but commemorate how Dr. King brought the church, government, and community together to build a stronger democracy that changed the social consciousness of this great nation.

Today we still face civil rights challenges that call upon the vanguard of the greater community. We have the right to vote, but we do not vote. Voting is critical because we do not have a direct democracy; we have a representative democracy. A representative democracy requires that we select our representatives carefully and thoughtfully because they express our collective will to the larger body politic. We have citizens who do not have access to health care, affordable housing, and quality education. We have been working for democracy before the signing of the Declaration of Independence. And as we know, our Constitution is a living document that we established in order to make a more perfect union. There is much work to be done. We must not stop now.

In the spirit of the American tradition, like Dr. King, we must recognize that we have the ability to meet the challenges of today. In the spirit of the American tradition we must overcome our fears to address our weaknesses. In the spirit of the American tradition we must continue to expand in a contemporary way, the dictates of the our democratic and constitutional principles that: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all [people] are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.