We have heard the call for action. The 50th anniversary of the March for Jobs and Freedom outlined what needs to be done to revive the Dream. President Obama has put forward part of that agenda for action. And now we face the Dream Busters. The agenda is compelling and clear. We should be expanding the right to vote, not constricting it.
By Arthur MacEwan
With a president who is African-American and talk of a “post-racial” society, one might think that the economic position of African Americans relative to European Americans had improved significantly over the last 40 or so years. One would be wrong.
Today was supposed to be an off-day; a break from the keyboard and a moment to spend some quality time reading and relaxing. That was my intent until I scanned the website of the Star-Ledger newspaper (Newark, NJ) and read about the 8th murder in that city in the last 7 days.
By Imam Al-Hajj Talib ‘Abdur-Rashid
Introduction
August 18, 2013 marks the 126th memorial birthdate of Marcus Garvey. In honor of that occasion, the purpose of this brief paper is to cite the influence of Islam and Muslims upon the man known to his millions of followers and admirers as the “Father of Black Nationalism”.
By Michelle Alexander
For the past several years, I have spent virtually all my working hours writing about or speaking about the immorality, cruelty, racism, and insanity of our nation’s latest caste system: mass incarceration. On this Facebook page I have written and posted about little else. But as I pause today to reflect on the meaning and significance of the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington , I realize that my focus has been too narrow.
By Joe Madison
There was a lot of talk around the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington this weekend that Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream remains unrealized. The March, of course, was for jobs and freedom, and commentators and activists alike rightly noted that much work remains on both counts. The Supreme Court this summer struck the core of the Voting Rights Act, and the recent Trayvon Martin killing and legal battles surrounding New York City’s stop and frisk policies underscore just how prejudiced our criminal justice system continues to be.
It is a strange but constantly occurring thing, the tendency to appropriate our history and culture as simply another expression of the self-congratulatory narrative the American established order has so…
As I listened to President Barack Obama speak from the spot where 50 years ago Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. put forth a stinging rebuke of America’s treatment of its Black offspring, my heart grew weary as it became apparent that his words would not meet my expectations or hopes.
In the 50 years since Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream Speech,” fewer than half of Americans say the country has made substantial progress towards racial equality.
When I participated in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, I was fortunate to witness an exquisite example of Dr. King’s oratory, but I did not then understand the full meaning of King’s concluding “I Have a Dream” speech. Only after his widow, Coretta Scott King, chose me to edit her late husband’s papers did I begin to appreciate Dr. King’s most famous speech in the broader context of his life and times. In cogent, metaphorically rich passages, his speech expressed the universal longing for freedom and justice.
By Sylvia A. Allegretto and Steven C. Pitts
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