Elders of our community, brothers and sisters, blessed children: a fond welcome to you all. Thank you for coming. Thank you for listening. Thank you for being who you are.
I must confess at the outset that my heart is heavy, and I can’t say with certainty why. I think we all knew this day would come, that the killer of that beautiful young man would walk free, and that the memories of a thousand small blows–cuts in our psyches, in our pride, in our determination–would come flowing back freely.
We live in a river that sometimes rejects us, do we not? We sometimes drink tainted water. We live in a world where we sometimes feel unwelcome. We catch the side glances. We feel things white people do not feel when a police car is behind us. We feel both pride and shame in our ancestry, do we not? The blessings of the Lord flow freely to all, but does it not sometimes feel they flow differently to us?
You all know whereof I speak. You have all lived on this jagged Earth long enough to know how it works. You have wisdom. You have knowledge. And you have freedom.
Therefore, what I would like to talk about tonight is possibility. I do not want to talk about young Trayvon or the man acquitted of killing him. I want to talk about where we have been, where we are, and where we may yet go, Lord willing. I want to speak of glorious dreams that have not been, but may yet be. I want you to hope. I want you to dream with me. But first we need to risk seeing where we have been, and are yet.
We live in 2013. Who would have thought we would endure to see this day? 150 years ago, most of our ancestors were enslaved, but a great war was being fought which would in the end bring an end to their legal servitude. But this war did not bring peace. It brought devastation to all in the South. It blighted white and black alike, but as always our people suffered the most. The law of the land stated that we were free, that we could not be held hostage, but economic realities belied that meager promise. We were treated, still, like cattle for many many years. We were terrorized. Our women had no safety. Our men had no safety.
I will remind you that the memory of the Civil War–the great division in our nation caused by the refusal of the South to grant us basic human dignity, and the strong ties between the South and the Democrat Party–was so strong in our nation that from 1860 until 1912 only one Democrat–Grover Cleveland–held our nations highest office, and that Woodrow Wilson was only elected in 1912 because the Republican Party was split. After Wilson, Republicans ruled for another 12 years, until the devastation of the Great Depression caused a split in our nations political soul that continues to this day.
As you know, I myself have been a lifetime Republican, because I cannot stomach an alliance with a Party whose entire history is filled with animosity for my race. If anyone should doubt this, read the high praise that was heaped on former Klan leader Robert Byrd when he passed away.
Let us forward to 1913, fifty years later. Woodrow Wilson explicitly refused to allow the hiring of black men and women by his Administration. He refused to pursue those responsible for lynchings in the South. He considered our race inferior, and said that bringing segregation–Jim Crow–to the north was for OUR OWN GOOD!!! Our own good. We have been blessed, have we not, to have so had so many defenders over the years? Our slave-masters claimed as much for their attempts to conquer our souls.
But we never lost the lust for freedom, did we? 1963: you remember, do you not? I have a dream. I have many dreams. I continue to have many dreams. We gathered, did we not? We spoke, did we not? We DEMANDED what was our just lot, our fair share: our piece of the American Dream.
There was a time when the Klan could march in large numbers down the streets of nearly any American street and be accepted, even cheered. All those days are over. Lynchings are over. Open discrimination is over. Racism is not publicly acceptable any more BUT–and this is the point I have been wanting to make–ONLY for white people. Black Americans practice it every day.
What was the ugly underbelly of the 1960’s? Was it not the riots, in Watts, Detroit, and elsewhere? Did we not turn ON OURSELVES, ON OUR PROPERTY, OUR HOMES, OUR BUSINESSES, OUR COMMUNITIES? Did we not frighten for a generation anyone not from those places from taking up residence there?
And what have we learned? Where are we in 2013? When I marched in Birmingham–when I was jailed in Birmingham–I wanted better for my people. At that time we could not swim in the pools, drink from the water fountains, sit in the same restaurants as white people. We ended that, which of course was a tremendous accomplishment, for which many are to be praised.
We have streets in nearly every city named after me, Rosa Parks and other people whom I admire greatly. We study black history in many schools, and celebrate black holidays.
But in the end have we not reached a state of begging for scraps from someone else’s table? How many of you think I marched to beg from ANYONE? Do you think my goal in life was to support people’s aim of accepting welfare from people who think them inferior for needing it?
Do you think my goal was to support YOU in feeling inferior, in feeling the black race NEEDS help, needs sustenance, needs guidance from white people? Why would anyone think this? HOW could anyone think this?
My friends, please forgive me my anger. I speak from the heart, and from a deep and abiding love for all of you, and particularly your children. I want them to live freely, in peace, and in plenty. I want them to walk the streets of their towns with dignity, with pride, with an earned self respect. God blesses those he favors with the ability and opportunity to do productive and useful work.
But do you know this? In the entire history of the Klan they murdered less than 5,000 negroes. This, over a period of more than half a century. Do you know that in this nation of plenty, this world we fought for, and died for, that many are killed each and EVERY YEAR? And that their killers are usually also black?
You say, the KKK ruled through terror. They did do that. They burned many crosses, did they not, and issued many threats. Local officials made it impossible for men and women of color to own firearms, lest they be used for self defense.
Do you not see, though, that our youth–our pride, our future–is living in terror too? Do you not think they feel fear walking their own streets, going to the store? The tragedy of Trayvon Martin is not just that he was shot while returning home, but that dozens of black children are killed in the same way every year. The media says nothing. We say nothing. This is a horror: an unmitigated horror.
And who do we blame? Who do we blame when a young black man “hits the streets” as they say, dumb, uneducated, lacking character, lacking discipline? When he lacks a plan for life, a direction, a sense of self, a sense of pride? Are you going to tell that is the WHITE MAN’S FAULT? How? Because somebody didn’t give you money to love your child enough to teach him right from wrong? Because nobody wrote a pamphlet informing you that school matters, and that your job is to teach him to value education?
This is a lie. You KNOW this is a lie. YOU KNOW IT. Look me in the eye and tell me that as a people, as a community, we are not failing our children. Of course we are failing them. It may be that the child is the father of the man, but we are the fathers and mothers of those children. They do not ask to come into the world: we bring them.
No one wants to say this, but teaching a child is infinitely easier when two parents are in the home. Virtually every deficiency in the black community could be solved if we simply stopped having children on whims, as mistakes, as cute little playthings, or as added paychecks.
The situation is simple: if you respect yourself, you will respect the lives, hopes and futures of your children. If you do not respect yourself, well, you will do exactly what you have been doing.
Again, I beg your forgiveness. I have read much of the Old Testament and found much inspiration and strength there. As it says in Ecclesiastes, there is a time and place for everything under heaven.
What I want to leave with is an understanding that you can change your worlds for the better. You just have to decide to. In my own way–skillfully or not, blessed with wisdom, or dampened by vanity–I am trying to encourage you do this. I believe we create the future first and foremost by what we believe is POSSIBLE. I want to show you a better possible. I want you to understand that what has come to be over the last fifty years can pass away over the next fifty, and that all the doubt and despair can give way to cheerfulness, optimism, green, safe parks, clean air, and prosperity.
We have much work to do. Winston Churchill once promised nothing but blood, toil, tears and sweat. What I would submit to you is that we are paying NOW in blood. We are paying NOW in toil and sweat. And how many tears were shed over Trayvon, who seems never to have had a chance?
Some things we cannot control. Our financial system is fundamentally unjust.
But what we can control is vastly greater than any of you conceive. The beauty that we can build in the stone canyons of our largest cities is beyond anything any of us can dream. And those beauties will be built, in time, if we simply feed our children peace, cheerfulness, a solid work ethic, and determination.
May God bless all of you and all those you love. May he bless this nation, and all the nations of the world. May peace come to reign, and may God inspire all of us to work together to build God’s kingdom on Earth. May the majesties which the human race has within it come to full fruition.
Be well, and good night.