We Still Need Dr. King’s Dream
Monday Ministerial Musings
By Rev. Mark William Ennis
2024 Blog #03
January 20, 2025
We Still Need Dr. King’s Dream
I grew up in a household that did not believe in racial equality. Half of the family were true bigots, and I learned many racial slurs from them. The other part of my family was not blatantly bigoted, but they certainly did not view non-whites as equals. These people could proudly proclaim that they weren’t prejudice, and each could give a few examples to prove their case. Needless to say, the family was nervous about the work of Dr. King and the reaction that many negros would have from his work. My family worried about the civil rights act of 1964 and the civil rights movement that followed. I don’t think that they realized how moderate Dr. King was. While some leaders were advocating violence for a just cause, he advocated a non-violent approach.
With Dr. King’s martyrdom, and the national rioting that followed, the worst fears of white people was realized. Other, more radical leaders emerged and the 1970’s started with violence instead of a non-violent movement.
People of my generation, at least those people I knew, had different views on race relations than did my parents and grandparents. Great society programs, affirmative action and the civil rights movement were popular, and I became naïve about how much progress was made in the areas of racial justice and race relations. We had made some progress, but I thought that we had made more than we had. I really didn’t realize that until my first grandson was born, and he is bi-racial.
My awareness actually started before his birth. When my daughter and her first husband, my grandson’s father, became a couple they heard many comments about being an interracial couple. Later, when my grandson was born, I was asked interesting questions as I would be pushing him in a stroller. I was asked, “where did you adopt him from?” “Are you raising him in a white home?” “What country did you get him from?” There was clearly no awareness that my daughter could have birthed a bi-racial child. Maybe we haven’t made as much progress as I thought when I was younger and a bit more idealistic.
I hope, pray and will work toward making Dr. King’s dream of racial justice becoming a reality. I have a vested interest. I want my grandson to live in a world in which people don’t notice the color of his skin. I want him to know a nation where Dr. King’s words become a reality.
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
This was Dr. King’s dream, and it is my dream as well. I will be working toward that dream, and I ask everyone who honors God to join me in working toward that dream. I don’t want my grandson to be judged by the color of his skin.
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