To interpret the meaning of Dr. King’s “dream” that he articulated 60 years ago, it is important to look to his own words that were the foundation of that dream. The video posted below includes the entire speech. It is well worth the 15 minutes it takes to view it, because it puts the “dream” into context rather than allowing it to be appropriated in ways that distort and domesticate Dr. King’s life and ministry. The following quote from the speech makes it clear that Dr. King’s dream was not about “color blindness.” Rather it was about working for true equality and justice that could only come about by facing the reality of racism:
Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God’s children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro’s legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. 1963 is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.
There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
Dr. King’s words in the summer of 1963 were echoed in the summer of 2020 following the murder of George Floyd and in the years since. Incidents of racial hate crimes like the recent murders of three innocent Black people in Jacksonville, FL are still an all too regular part of the new cycle. Legislative efforts to restrict voting rights have proliferated throughout the nation. Teaching the depth of racism in American history and its ongoing legacy is stereotyped as divisive CRT and outlawed in several states including Florida and Virginia despite their histories of racial injustice and terror. Overall, the past decade has been characterized more by a retreat from Dr. King’s dream than a recommitment to it. Yet this is no time for despair. As Dr. King said in that same speech:
We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.
As people of faith living in these difficult days may we recommit to moving forward, not only toward Dr. King’s dream of 60 years ago but toward God’s eternal dream of shalom – peace, justice, reconciliation and wholeness for all God’s children.