King’s children address Democratic National Convention in Denver stadium
By Michelle Austein
DENVER – During the final day of the Democratic National Convention August 28, Barack Obama and other speakers commemorated the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream Speech.”
On August 28, 1963, in an exercise of free speech and political dissent called the March on Washington, an estimated 250,000 people marched to the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, where they heard King give his speech about equality. The speech gave impassioned voice to the demands of the U.S. civil rights movement — equal rights for all citizens.
In that speech, King said, “I have a dream that one day, this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,” and that his children would “not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” (See “Martin Luther King’s Dream of Racial Equality.”)
On the 45th anniversary of that speech, Barack Obama accepted the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination, making him the first African-American nominee of a major U.S. political party.
Speaking about those who marched on Washington, Obama said, “They could’ve heard words of anger and discord. They could’ve been told to succumb to the fear and frustration of so many dreams deferred.”
“But what the people heard instead … is that in America our destiny is inextricably linked,” Obama said. “That together, our dreams can be one.”
Those marchers, Obama said, pledged to march ahead. Today, “America, we cannot turn back.… We must pledge once more to march into the future.”
NOMINATION BASED ON CHARACTER, NOT COLOR
Two of King’s children, Bernice King and Martin Luther King III, spoke about the significance of this day before a stadium packed with more than 80,000 awaiting Obama to give his Democratic presidential nomination speech.
“Tonight, we witness in part what has become of his dream, the acceptance of a Democratic presidential nominee, decided not by the color of his skin, but by the content of his character,” Bernice King said.
King III said his father would be proud of both Obama and “the America that will elect him.”
“We’re all children of the dream,” King III said. “But my father would be quick to remind us that realizing his dream is not Barack Obama’s job alone.”
Congressman John Lewis of Georgia, who at age 23 was the youngest person to speak during the March on Washington, said that even though Obama’s nomination is a testament to the power of King’s dream and the promise of America, his dream is yet be realized.
Lewis said King’s speech inspired an entire generation of many faiths, races and cultures “to believe that we had the power, we had the ability, and we had the capacity to make that dream a reality.”
“Tonight, we have gathered here in this magnificent stadium in Denver because we still have a dream,” Lewis said. With Obama’s nomination, “we prove that a dream still burns in the hearts of every American.”
“But this night is not an ending. It is not even a beginning. It is the continuation of a struggle that began centuries ago,” Lewis said.
KING’S DREAM AND U.S. DEMOCRACY
Both Martin Luther King III and Lewis talked about how King’s speech influenced American democracy.
In order to be a great democracy, King III said, Americans must take an active role. “That goes far beyond simply casting your vote,” King III said. “We must all actively champion the causes that ensure the common good.”
“Democracy is not a state. It is an act. It is a series of actions we must take to build what Martin Luther King Jr. called the beloved community — a society based on simple justice that values the dignity and the worth of every human being,” Lewis said.
“We’ve come a long way, but we still have a distance to go. We’ve come a long way, but we must march again,” he said. “On November 4th, we must march in every state, in every city, in every village, in every hamlet; we must march to the ballot box. We must march like we have never marched before to elect the next President of the United States, Senator Barack Obama.”
