COGIC, AFSCME and MLK’s next campaign
“I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the Promised Land.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., April 3, 1968.
When a climber ascends a mountain, there are tools and resources he or she needs to reach the peak. Without rope, a harness, a helmet, proper boots, and a pulley, the odds of reaching the upward journey’s end are long indeed.
So it goes also with our journey for upward advancement as blacks in America. As African American people, we cannot successfully realize Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s mountaintop experience without equipping individuals, communities and families with the necessary tools and resources to always finish strong.
Together, we must carry on the work of Dr. King and so many other activists and political trailblazers to ensure that black society succeeds.
Dr. King delivered his historic “Mountaintop” speech at Mason Temple, headquarters of the millions-strong Church of God in Christ (COGIC).
He was in Memphis to support the brave sanitation workers, members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), a labor union of 1.6 million public service workers.
I AM A MAN was the slogan that those workers adopted in 1968 to shine a light on their degrading working conditions and to assert their humanity.
This week in Memphis, as leaders of COGIC and AFSCME, we are launching the I AM 2018 campaign, drawing inspiration from these 1968 heroes and making sure the 50th anniversary is not only a time of commemoration and honor, but also a moment to carry forward their fight for justice and Dr. King’s legacy and mission.
Today more than ever, we need to equip and train a new generation of activists, to kick off a national movement for racial and economic justice, and to mobilize towards the 2018 elections and beyond.
All around us, we see momentum and energy to change our country for the better. At COGIC, we’ve been working as a united people through our congregants and congregations to attain Dr. King’s proverbial Promised Land, by making real and measurable change in our communities.
Through our Urban Initiatives program, we’ve been empowering local churches from Memphis to Chicago to Texas to implement programs that address education, economic development, crime, family and financial literacy.
AFSCME members work every day to sustain our communities -- whether it’s picking up the garbage, driving school buses, plowing the roads, or responding to medical emergencies.
Public service is more than a job, it’s a calling. And we build power in numbers together, fighting for better lives for ourselves, our neighbors and all working people.
Our faith has guided us to create building blocks on which our people can trust and rely -- secure foundations that endure and offer wealth and success generation after generation.
When Dr. King envisioned himself on the mountaintop, we imagine that he first looked down to see just how far the upward journey he had come. Climbing the mountain may have been a dangerous feat, but standing on the peak, he was free to see the true beauty of the world around him – the Promised Land.
It’s possible he then looked up and realized that once you experience the mountaintop, only the sky is the limit. Perhaps this is when Dr. King knew that we as a people could make it.
Bishop Charles E. Blake Sr. is the Presiding Bishop of the Church of God in Christ. Lee Saunders is president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME).