50 years later, taking a look at MLK’s dream

Five decades after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the nation still grapples with race.

50 years. Half a century. A lifetime. And a life cut short. It was 50 years ago yesterday that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stepped out onto the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. A single shot rang out. King was mortally wounded. The nation’s pre-eminent civil rights leader, the man who espoused a non-violent means to an end, was gone in an instant.

Five decades later, the nation continues to grapple with many of the issues King raised.

First and foremost, it should be noted that Dr. King was felled by a bullet. Yes, gun violence. That hasn’t exactly gone away, has it?

Half a century later, the question must be asked.

Where does King’s “Dream” stand? Are we still on course to reach the “Promised Land?”

Without question, the country made great strides in the wake of the assassinations of both President John F. Kennedy and Dr. King. President Lyndon Johnson, through sheer will and political expertise, pushed the Civil Rights Act deftly through Congress.

Dr. King was there when Johnson signed the measure into law in 1964.

But King continued to see – and confront – injustice in much of America. In the next four years, he used the power of non-violence to bring public pressure to bear. He marched in Selma. He stood firm with those taking part in the bus boycott in Montgomery. He was jailed in Birmingham. And he went to Memphis to stand beside sanitation workers seeking a decent wage and working conditions.

It is ironic that a man who stood for non-violence was felled by an assassin’s rifle.

What is even more ironic is that 50 years later, America continues to wrestle with the same demons that tormented King. The nation continues to struggle with race, violence and economic justice.

More troubling is the clear signs that in some areas the country seems to be regressing. We have witnessed white supremacists march in Charlottesville, Va. We have seen an uptick in confrontations between police and black Americans, too often with deadly results. We see brazen attempts to restrict voting rights too often dressed up as voter reform. Schools in impoverished areas continue to struggle, in part because of funding equations that stack the deck against them for no other reason than their zip code.

It was nearly a decade ago that some believed they were witnessing a crucial piece of the “Dream” come true. The nation went to the polls and elected a black man president of the United States.

But Barack Obama’s ascension to the highest office in the land did not quell the racial tension that continued to fester just under the surface of the nation’s consciousness. In some ways it caused a backlash, a steep continuation of a bitter partisan political climate that now reached new levels of rancor.

Eight years later, this racial and partisan divide sparked a bitter backlash, a familiar mantra to “drain the swamp” in Washington.

To do this, voters – at least those accounting for the Electoral College – sent a billionaire real estate mogul turned reality TV host to the White House.

Donald Trump preached a message of change, an outsider who was willing to change the rules in Washington. But instead of uniting the country, he divided it. He pushed a message of fear of those who don’t look, speak or act like we do.

He castigated immigrants – in a nation of immigrants – as the reason for our decline. He boosted business, not the working man. He lined his Cabinet and key appointments with his friends and those who would agree with him. His words and inflammatory rhetoric emboldened whites and played to their fears that they were losing their grip on a changing society. Hate speech, torch-bearing marchers and unrest ensued.

King envisioned a world where his children would not be judged on the color of their skin, but on the content of their character.

He hinted at his own demise, but vowed he did not fear any man. He told the faithful that God had allowed him to go up the mountaintop, that he had peered across to the other side, and he had seen the Promised Land. He vowed that even if he did not get there with you, we as a people will get to the Promised Land.

Fifty years later, some would argue we are still waiting.