January 30. 2013
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How We Can Truly Honor Dr. King
U
ri n
4-1«.^
Redeeming
the
soul of America
za
by
M arian W right E delman
In his last Sun
day serm o n at
W ashington N a
tional Cathedral,
Dr. King retold the
parable of the rich
man Dives who
ignored the poor and sick man
Lazarus who came every day seek
ing crumbs from Dives’ table.
Dives went to hell, Dr. King said,
not because he was rich but be
cause he did not realize his wealth
was his opportunity to bridge the
gulf separating him from his brother
and allowed Lazarus to become in
visible. He warned this could hap
pen to rich America, “if we don’t use
her vast resources to end poverty
and make it possible for all of God’s
children to have the basic necessi
ties of life.”
At his death in 1968, when he was
calling with urgency for an end to
poverty in our nation, there were
25.4 million poor Americans includ
ing 11 million poor children and our
Gross Domestic Product was $4.13
trillion.
Tndav there
thprp are
» i - az 46.2
IA 9 million poor
«
....
Today
nation’s tax subsidies, loopholes cation practices that push them out
were killed by guns in 1968 - includ
people including 16.1 million poor and bailouts to feed and house and
of school and towards prison, and ing the lives o f approxim ately
children and our GDP is three times educate our children and employ
efforts to undermine the hard earned 148,000 children and teens.
larger. Twenty million of our neigh their parents.
right to vote. Let’s not return to Jim
Let’s honor Dr. King by standing
bors are living in extreme poverty
Let’s honor and follow Dr. King Crow shenanigans that strangled
up and doing whatever is required
including 7.3 million children.
by naming and changing the con our democracy far too long.
for as long as needed to break the
Disgracefully children are the tin u in g
rac ial
d isp a ritie s,
Let’s honor and follow Dr. King political grip o f the National Rifle
poorest age group in America and undergirded by poverty, that place
by building a beloved community in Association and their allies who
the younger they are the poorer one in three black and one in six
America where all have enough to seek to add more guns to the ap
they are and one in four preschool Hispanic boys bom in 2001 at risk of
children are poor. More than one in prison in their lifetimes. Incarcera eat, a place to sleep, enough work at proximately 300 million in circula
decent wages to support a family, tion and continuing production and
three black children and the same tion is the new American apartheid.
buy a home, raise children, and send sales of assault weapons and high
proportion of Latino children are Let’s reroute our children into a
them to public schools that empower volume ammunition magazines that
poor. Children have suffered most pipeline to college and productive
children with hope, confidence and should not be in the hands o f civil-
since the recession began.
work to compete with children from skills for the future.
lans.
I have no doubt that Dr. King China and India.
Let’s truly honor Dr. King by
The day after Dr. King was shot,
would be mounting a nonviolent
Let’s honor and follow Dr. King transforming our education system
I went into riot tom Washington,
poor people campaign to end ram by speaking truth to power and
that sentences millions of children D.C. neighborhoods and schools
pant hunger, homelessness, and demanding justice for poor and
to social and economic death by urging children not to loot, get ar
poverty today.
vulnerable children with urgency failing to prepare them and our coun
rested and ruin their futures. A young
Let s honor Dr. King by our com and persistence and effective non
try for the future. That a majority of black boy about 12 looked me
mitted action to end child poverty violent direct actions to bring our
all children in all income and racial squarely in the eyes and said, “Lady,
and close the morally obscene gulf nation back from the brink of self
between rich and poor in our nation destruction fueled by the unbridled groups and 76 percent of black and what future? I ain’t got no future. I
Hispanic children cannot read or ain’t got nothing to lose.” Let us
where the 400 highest income earn greed of the few and a military bud
compute at grade level in fourth and followDr. King by provingthat boy’s
ers made as much as the combined get that dwarfs our early childhood
e ig h th g rad es is a th re a t to truth wrong in our militarily power
tax revenues of 22 state govern development budget where the real
America’s future economic and mili ful, materially rich, but too spiritu
ments with42 million citizens in2008, security of our nation lies.
tary strength.
ally poor nation.
and the wealthiest top 1 percent
L et’s honor and follow Dr. King
Let’s honor Dr. King by ensuring
Dr. King is not coming back. It’s
hold more net wealth than the bot by stopping the resurgence of racial
every child’s safety and right to live up to us to redeem the soul o f
tom 90 percent combined.
and incom e segregation in our by ending the epidemic gun vio
America. He told us what to do.
The rich don’t need another tax schools, unfair treatment of chil
lence in our nation that has snuffed Let’s do it.
break and they need to give back dren of color with zero tolerance
out more than 1.3 million American
Marian Wright Edelman is presi
some of their unfair share of our school discipline and special edu
lives since he and Robert Kennedy dent o f the Children's Defense Fund.
of
Times
and
the
Worst
of
Times
Equality and
justice in
America
by
C harles J. O gletree J r .
With the death o f Trayvon M ar
tin nearly a year ago, many won
dered whether there could be any
justice in America. The indictment
o f George Zimmerman and the sub
sequent focus on the shooting
death o f Trayvon Martin has set the
legal process to take its course in
the near future.
In looking at the overall state of
race and justice in America, clearly
a lot o f progress has been made.
On Nov. 4,2008, the United States
elected its first African-American
President, Barack Obama, who is
ju st beginning his second term.
Clearly, the job of equality and jus
tice is not the job of one man. But,
since his election, President Obama
has taken a number of steps that
make the state of race and justice a
positive one.
If we simply look at the Supreme
Court, which decides much of our
legal issues that impact us greatly,
the President has had the
opportunity to appoint two
people. And on both occa
sions, he appointed women;
including a woman of color.
W hen we look at the
United States Circuit Courts, which
are one step away from the United
States Supreme Court, President
Obama has appointed the first Afri
can-American for Mississippi to the
Fifth Circuit; an African-American
with Haitian connections to the
Second Circuit; the first woman in
Massachusetts to the First Circuit;
and an African-American woman to
the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.
This only begins to show the
diversity and quality of his appoint
ments. More importantly, the Presi
dent - in his first term - persuaded
Congress to support a $787 billion
stim u lu s p a ck a g e, has had
healthcare approved, and prevailed
in the Supreme Court on protection
of rights of immigrants. These suc
cesses reveal the commitment to the
state o f ju stic e , eq u ality , and
progress in our country.
Despite the progress of the past
four years, there is still much work to
be done. We still have a problem in
terms of employment, housing, and
an increasing negative reflection on
the African-American presence in
the criminal justice system.
While many of these issues are
influenced by local and state legis
*** Jlort lattò CObsrmer
Rakeem Washington
E xecutive D irector :
P u blish er :
E d ito r :
M ark Washington
M ic h a e l L e ig h to n
C reative D irector :
P a u l N e u fe ld t
O ffice M anager /C lassifieds : Lucinda
A dvertising :
Established 1970
lation, they are still troubling when
you see the African-American un
employment rates in double digits,
housing foreclosures increasing,
and the state of equality in our crimi
nal justice system that leaves all of
us at peril.
The good news, of course, is that
under the leadership o f Attorney
General Eric Holder, the first Afri
can-American Attorney General, the
disparity between powder cocaine
and crack cocaine has been reduced
from 100 to 1 to 18 to 1. This is a step
in the right direction. But leveling
the playing field to a 1 to 1 ratio is still
necessary. And we hope that will be
accomplished in the coming years.
President Obama has made clear
his views on the kinds of justices he
wants for the courts, what kinds of
tax cuts he wants, as well as his
views on a woman's right to choose,
immigration, and now, stricter gun
laws. Voters carefully assessed and
made their decision for themselves
and for their children and grandchil
dren for generations to come.
In conclusion, it is the best of
times and the worst of times. We
have made a lot of progress on many
issues, but the job is not done.
Charles Ogletree Jr. is the Jesse
Climenko P rofessor o f Law at
Harvard Law School and execu
tive director and founder o f the
Charles Hamilton Houston Insti
tute fo r Race and Justice.
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