On this day on which we celebrate the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I am always reminded of why it is that we must continue to be vigilant in continuing his fight for justice and equality.
It would surprise many, as it does me, that Dr. King can still inspire controversy. He has become such an accepted part of the American narrative that you would think that these objections would have gone the way if those old segregationist dinosaurs like Jesse Helms who fought so hard against this holiday.
It is especially surprising when we look at the sanitized version of Dr. King that has become that celebrated standard. We hear the "I Have A Dream" speech and we go to the mountaintop with him. We see the marches in Alabama and the police dogs and brick throwers. We don't hear his words speaking out against the injustices of the Vietnam War or see his speeches railing against poverty and calling for revolutionary change in our economic reality.
But much to my amazement even the sanitized King is too much for some.
When I first came to North Carolina to attend law school at Wake Forest University I was quite surprised that the school did not honor the Dr. King holiday by canceling classes for the day.
My view was shared by others in the law school community. My first year the National Lawyers Guild, an association to which I proudly belonged, wrote an open letter to the Dean asking for the faculty to take up the issue and take action to have Dr. King's holiday as a day off to honor his work and his life. The second year, we presented a petition signed by a large number of the students.
Both attempts at encouraging change at the law school were basically ignored. The school would continue to honor the day by holding a discussion on issues of race so that we would celebrate the day appropriately. The paternalism of the then all white administration and nearly all white faculty (my how things have changed) was not lost on those of us pushing for change. What was especially disconcerting to us was the fact that we always had the Monday before MLK Day off, starting the semester on a Tuesday. This "Mystery Monday" made the solution to our demands so easy to accomplish that it seemed that the administration was simply being intractable just to show they wouldn't be pushed into any decision.
During my third and final year it was determined that bigger actions were needed. The Lawyers Guild and the Black Law Student Association joined forces for a plan to organize a class boycott and noon time rally at the law school. Notices were sent out to all students announcing the events and encouraging everyone to take part and attend. Those of us taking part in the boycott sent notices to our professors explaining we would be absent and encouraging them to cancel classes as well, which many did. Speakers were scheduled, media were notified and the plan was put into place.
I was scheduled as the first speaker at the rally. I spoke about what I felt we as future attorneys were charged by Dr. King to do in our lives. That we would be put into positions where we would come face to face with racism whether it be from a client, a fellow attorney or even a judge or our bosses. Would we have the courage to stand up to this injustice and speak out or would we sit by and remain silent? It would not be easy to speak up and it might even mean suffering hardships along the way. But if we were to live up to the challenge of Dr. King's legacy then that is what we would be called to do. And, of course, any small injustice we might suffer would be inconsequential when compared to those suffered by Dr. King himself and all the other martyrs of that dark time in our nation's history.
The boycott was a success. The next year and ever since Wake Law has had no classes on this day. And hopefully many of my fellow students who attended that rally and listened to my words and the words of the other speakers were emboldened just a bit to have the courage to speak up rather than remain silent.
That was 15 years ago. You would think that we would have seen less and less of a need to speak up as we continue to progress as a society. We have a black President for crying out loud, one who was elected with more votes than any other candidate ever received. There's talk of a post-racial America where people are truly judged on the content of their character rather than the color of their skin.
But as always the more progress we see the more the exceptions are brought to the forefront. Anyone who follows politics or even simply reads the comment section of any newspaper website knows that the hatred and injustice of the old guard racism still exists.
Of course it is one thing to hide behind the anonymity provided by a screen name on a message board or chat room and another to shamelessly air your views for all to see.
I came across the latter yesterday. One of my "friends" on Facebook, a person I know but with whom I would otherwise not socialize, posted on her status something to the effect that since she didn't celebrate MLK Day and couldn't understand why anyone would, could she send her kids to school so she could take the day off in peace. I know in her mind her garden variety ignorance and bigotry was an attempt at a joke, albeit a very unfunny one. But what followed was downright alarming. Other of her ignorant and bigoted friends posted various guffaws and agreements. But some went well beyond that. One of her friends posted the following: "I wish they had killed six more so we could have the whole week off."
To the credit of some of her "friends" there were some rebukes made toward the ignorant and the bigoted. But for the most part the others joined in. Of course all of them defended their comments and the comments of the others as not being racist. I bet they even have black friends (although they're probably "colored"). Apparently defining racism is another things they no longer cover in our public schools.
What this little example showed to me is that there still exists plenty of opportunities for us to stand up against bigotry and hatred every day. We still have opportunities to take up Dr. King's challenge and be a voice for justice every day. Apparently my former Facebook friend and her other cohorts were never faced with anyone willing to call them on their prejudice. Pity.
The only question that remains is will we take up this challenge or will we remain a silent co-conspirator? Which will you be? Which will I?
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