King's 'Dream' Was a Radical Economic Equality Message

Very few things make my skin crawl more than listening to someone totally misrepresent the famous "I Have a Dream" speech the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave Aug. 28, 1963.

It's clear that far too many people haven't bothered to actually read or listen to the speech. Instead, folks — especially those who likely would have branded King a communist, a socialist, a Marxist or a racist hellbent on destroying America — love to tout Dr. King's "content of character" line in order to push back against a variety of issues, especially affirmative action.

I just saw a press release from Project 21, a coalition of black conservatives, suggesting that a rally planned Saturday by a radio talk show host and Fox News personality is akin to the 1963 march.

Coby Dillard, a member of Project 21, is quoted as saying: "The dream of Dr. King — that every person be judged by their character rather than their color — is one of the tenets that makes our nation honorable in the minds of people around the world. Dr. King's legacy is a gift to us all, and no one person or organization holds claim to his work and his message. I can think of no better way to honor him by renewing our shared commitment to uphold those principles that have held our country together throughout history."

It's clear that Dillard and so many others haven't read a history book or other publications surrounding the march. Instead, they love to continue to spread falsehoods, misrepresentations and outright fabrications stemming from the Washington, D.C., march.

First, we need to stop calling it the March on Washington. It was officially called the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. If you leave off the "Jobs and Freedom" part, it sounds as if black folks just went for a walk that day. Upset with the lack of economic opportunities for blacks at the time, as well as the voting rights injustices, the organizers wanted to put pressure on Congress and the John F. Kennedy administration to put their muscle behind a comprehensive civil rights bill.

No, the 1963 march had nothing to do with some hokey values espoused by a radio/TV windbag. It was a day to assemble a mass of people to represent a show of strength and to get leaders in Washington to listen to what was urgently needed across the country.

Second, we continue to misrepresent King's speech as the "I Have a Dream" speech.

As CNN's Soledad O'Brien reported in the special "MLK Papers — Words That Changed a Nation," the speech never was called that. It actually was titled "Normalcy — Never Again." In fact, the "I have a dream" portion, which represents the bottom third of it, wasn't in the original text.

As Soledad reported, King often gave variations of the "dream" portion of the speech, and on that day, he was encouraged by gospel great Mahalia Jackson to tell the audience about his "dream."

There is no doubt that his soaring oratory about the need for racial harmony continues to send chills down our spines today, but if we as a country get so excited and wrapped up in the "dream" sequence, we forget the economic nightmare King painted in the top two-thirds of the speech. When I give speeches, I often tell folks the "I have a dream" portion is the "hoop" part, which is when a pastor begins to sing, scream and shout when he/she has finished a sermon. But the real measure of a sermon is the Scripture, which serves as the thesis of the sermon.

So let's get to the meat — or the purpose — of King's 1963 speech.

At the top, he laid out the vision of slaves being freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, yet "100 years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination.

Then he made clear that the purpose of going to the Lincoln Memorial was to "dramatize a shameful condition."

"In a sense, we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check," Dr. King said. "When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.

"This note was a promise that all men — yes, black men as well as white men — would be guaranteed the 'unalienable Rights' of 'Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.' It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked 'insufficient funds.'

"But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice."

King then began to talk about the "fierce urgency of now," laying out the treacherous conditions upon which black people lived in, e.g., having to deal with violence and people trampling upon their rights.

He laid bare the despair of blacks not being able to stay in hotel rooms, having to drink out of segregated water fountains, and lacking voting rights.

Then King launched into the portion about his "dream."

Folks, the fulfillment of Dr. King's dream wasn't about getting along. It was about every man and woman's being afforded equal rights and an opportunity to find a job, raise a family and not to have to suffer from police brutality. His speech wasn't partisan or political; it was prophetic and was about prosperity.

How is it relevant today? Anyone who wants to model that march should stop with the ego-driven nonsense and focus on pushing Congress to enact a jobs bill so Americans can work. Tell Democrats and Republicans to stop playing footsy with lobbyists and looking out for Wall Street's interests. Tell leaders in Washington to give a damn about the poor of this country, from the hills of West Virginia to the dusty roads in Alabama. Tell some Republicans to stop their shameful condemnations of Americans who can't find jobs.

For the nearly 250,000 who gathered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28, 1963, it wasn't about ego; it was about results. There was no partisan agenda; it was one in which whites and blacks refused to stand idly by and watch black Americans denied an opportunity to thrive in this country. In the final five years of his life, King fought for equal pay for sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn., and was planning a Poor People's Campaign in Washington, D.C., to highlight the economic injustices.

Please, take the time to go and read or listen to the speech. Understand the context. Examine the overall mission. And don't try to pimp and pervert Dr. King's prophetic word so you can score some political points.

And that goes for a charlatan — even if he has a TV or radio show — who seeks to align himself with Dr. King's momentous and radical speech 47 years ago.

Roland S. Martin is an award-winning CNN analyst and the author of the book "The First: President Barack Obama's Road to the White House as originally reported by Roland S. Martin." Please visit his website at www.RolandSMartin.com. To find out more about Roland S. Martin and read his past columns, visit the Creators Syndicate Web page at www.creators.com.

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