Dreamstime
Editor's Note: A graduate of White Station High School and the University of Memphis School of Journalism, Maya Smith is a former staff writer for the Memphis Flyer and Memphis magazine. The story originally appeared in the April 2018 issue of Memphis magazine.
I didn’t have to face blatant racism growing up. I had a good education at a diverse Memphis public school. I could sit where I wanted in movie theaters, and I could drink from any water fountain I chose to drink from.
I was fortunate. It’s really hard to wrap my head around the reality that, just 50 years ago, people who looked like me wouldn’t have been able to enjoy basic freedoms like these.
I couldn’t imagine living through that.
We have come a long way since Dr. King’s time — don’t get me wrong — but we still aren’t there. Yet, we can’t deny the progress made in this country when the fruits of change are evident.
Fifty years ago, black men were probably the most disenfranchised subgroup in America. A black man’s vote back then was irrelevant and in many places nonexistent. But since then, a black man has been elected to hold the country’s most powerful position as the leader of the free world.
Major progress has been made since the heart of the Civil Rights movement in all areas: politics, business, education, legislation, entertainment, and media. The mountaintop that King spoke of in his final speech is in sight and we are farther from the bottom than we have ever been.
However, we know that mountaintops aren’t reached overnight nor without a climb filled with struggle, resistance, and a little pain. Dr. King knew that and he was not deterred. Instead he prevailed over racial tension and hate-fueled discrimination so that one day people of color could live in an equal America.
He did the hard work all those years ago. He did the work that we probably couldn’t fathom doing today. Now it’s time for this generation of Americans to finish King’s work. We have come far, but not quite far enough.
Hope will get us there, though.
Ten years ago, on the 40th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s death, on the cusp of Barack Obama’s historic election, “The Uncertainty of Hope” was the title on this last page, written by Larry Conley, who had previously been editor of this magazine.
Conley’s piece touched on the uncertainty of hoping for something better when you know what you know and have seen what you’ve seen. And though hope does breed uncertainty, it is a strong force that can propel us all into action. Hope would not be hope without some uncertainty, for why would we hope for what we already can see?
If Barack Obama had no hope for the future, then his campaign for presidency might have never begun.
If Martin Luther King and others had never hoped for a better, equal life, they would have never even dared to begin fighting for it. If not for hope, we’d never have come this far.
Today, 54 years since the Civil Rights Act was passed and 50 years since Dr. King was shot while standing on the Lorraine Motel balcony, killed as a direct result of his hope-driven pursuit for equality, we must find that same hope King and other civil rights pioneers before us possessed.
This must stop. There must be fewer walls and more bridges between communities. There is common ground among all of us; we just have to be intentional about finding it and celebrating it when we do.
Because there is still work to be done.
As we remember the legacy of Dr. King, we should ask ourselves, “Is this the America he dreamed of?”
My guess is that it’s not.
Black men might no longer face the wrath of unleashed police dogs and water hoses, but in 2018 they must endure stereotyping, police brutality, and a one-in-three chance of being incarcerated. The laws that guarantee everyone fundamental civil rights cannot protect against the remnants of an unjust system that was in place for centuries.
While black communities across this country are struggling to catch up, unfortunately other groups are also experiencing inequality. Muslims, Latinos, and immigrants from all over the world, like African Americans, understand what it’s like to be stereotyped, misunderstood, and denied opportunities.
This must stop. There must be fewer walls and more bridges between communities. There is common ground among all of us; we just have to be intentional about finding it and celebrating it when we do.
Because if we are not careful, the hate that once starkly divided this country will resurface. As Dr. King said, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
Perhaps 50 years from now people will look back on 2018, and they will find it hard to wrap their heads around today’s injustices, because they will be a thing of the past.
We still have a ways to go, but I’m hopeful that we shall overcome and see the actual mountaintop, one day soon.
