There is really nothing I can say about what the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King was trying to teach us all and motivate us all to accomplish that he did not say himself. Given that reality, here he is in his own words. The Other America (1967):
The Three Evils of Society (1967):
Beyond Vietnam (1967):
Finally, as I wrote in last year’s Independence Day post, during the years prior to the Great Rebellion, America abolitionists rewrote the lyrics to My Country Tis of Thee. This abolitionist variant, done in a minor key, becomes a haunting spiritual begging the divine providence cited by the Founders in the Declaration, Constitution, and their other writings to finally bring liberty to all. This variant is below:
I will only say, in honor of the day and the man it is named after, that if one is not considered equal, then none of us are equal. And if one is not free, none of us are free. That has always been the challenge of America’s ideals versus America’s reality. It is up to us to do the hard work, small and large, to bridge that gap and to truly form a more perfect Union. Open thread!