The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born this day in 1929. In a life cut short by an assassin’s bullet in 1968, Dr. King left his mark on the world by preaching equality for all Americans.
While we have made great strides in the years since his death, including the election of the first black president in 2008, the dream is far from fulfilled.
While speaking to the annual state employees’ observance of the King holiday in downtown Raleigh Friday, Gov. Beverly Perdue drew attention to the obstacles of voter identification proposals and cuts to education budgets – measures that affect blacks more than whites.
“I believe if Dr. King were here today, he would remind the authors of those pieces of legislation and laws that to form a more perfect union we should encourage more Americans of every stripe to vote on Election Day. Why would he not do that?” Perdue told the assembled crowd.
You need look no further than Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech for more reminding and vision for our country:
“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.’ I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.”