Gone nowhere
Despite the advances the US has made since the Rev Martin Luther King Jr was slain while fighting poverty and racism, America has a way to go.
UNITED STATES: Despite the advances the US has made since the Rev Martin Luther King Jr was slain while fighting poverty and racism, ‘‘the age of bullies and bigots is not fully behind us’’, former US Attorney General Eric Holder says.
The remark yesterday was one of two thinly veiled references to US President Donald Trump that Holder made during his appearance at a symposium in Memphis on the first of three days of events commemorating the 50th anniversary of King’s assassination.
King was supporting striking sanitation workers when he came to Memphis in 1968. He was talking with friends on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel on April 4 when he was shot dead.
Holder, who was the first black US attorney general, said he was proud that the nation had made progress in the past 50 years in achieving racial, social and economic justice. He said women, minorities, students against gun violence and members of the LGBTQ community had been inspired by King’s non-violent protests and had launched movements calling for ‘‘fairness, opportunity and justice’’.
But he also noted that King’s dream of equality for all had not been reached.
‘‘We’re still marching, we are still striving, and we’re still calling on our nation’s leaders to act with a sense of justice, compassion and common humanity. The unfortunate fact is that in 2018, America’s long struggle to overcome injustice, to eliminate disparities and eradicate violence has not yet ended, and the age of bullies and bigots is not fully behind us.’’
Holder said he had spoken with young people who felt lost in their own country and were ‘‘fearful that America’s too-long-standing divisions are threatening to tear our nation apart’’.
He said the ‘‘chief civil rights issue of our time’’ was ensuring that minorities had equal voting rights.
‘‘As easy as it is, we must not look back to a past that was comforting to too few, and unjust to too many,’’ Holder said. Then, in a reference to Trump’s campaign slogan, he added: ‘‘That is not how we make America great.’’