By Camille Taylor
During January, there are many celebrations around Dr. Martin L. King Jr.’s birthday. The “I Have a Dream” speech is part of Dr. King’s legacy.
Since our president gave the State of the Unionaddress last night, I wanted to share a few “State of the Dream” observations. “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.” Dr. King would have been pleased to see Barack Obama elected President, believing that as a nation, we may be closer to that dream.
However, discrimination on the basis of race continues. The U.S. Bureau of Statistics provides a stark contrast between the quality of life for whites versus people of color. A typical white household has 16 times the wealth than people of color when you define wealth as home ownership, education, and job earnings. Dr. King said, “I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.” Since 1975, the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus has state legislators who develop remedies for social and economic problems.King said, “We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.”
With the erosion of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Mississippi doesn’t allow early voting or on-line voting and requires official identification when voting. This has turned the history clock back to the 1960’s. King said, “We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.”
What would Dr. King think of the almost weekly news of unarmed blacks being shot by police in communities across our nation? King also said, “I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells.” Dr. King would be saddened by issues like the school to prison pipeline impacting black students,or statistics likeone in three black men can expect to go to prison in their lifetime or one out of every 15 black men are incarcerated compared to one out of every 106 white men. No doubt progress has occurred, but we have a long way to go before his dream becomes a reality.
Camille Taylor, a retired Counselor from Normal Community High School, has been an educator in this community for 34 years. She is active in the community currently serving as a church elder and board member for both the Baby Fold and the YWCA. She has been recognized by the YWCA as a Woman of Distinction for education, a Martin Luther King Jr. award winner for the City of Bloomington, a Distinguished Alumni by the College of Education at Illinois State University, a Human and Civil Rights award winner for the Illinois Education Association, and the H.Councill Trenholm Award recipient from the National Education Association for her work with diversity. She lives in Bloomington with her husband, Arthur, and is a mother and grandmother.
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