Freeman: If King Were Alive, He'd Be Proud Of Progress, Point To Unfinished Work PD 1/16/2000

Headline: IF KING WERE ALIVE, HE'D BE PROUD OF PROGRESS, POINT TO UNFINISHED WORK
Reporter: By Gregory Freeman

Publication: ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Last Printed: Sun., Jan. 16, 2000
Section: METRO Page: C3 Edition: FIVE STAR LIFT

Civil rights 2000

Had the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lived, he would have turned 71 on Saturday.

Most people have retired at that age, and King perhaps would have given up his position as pastor of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. But considering how active King was when he was assassinated at 39, it's likely that he would still be involved in civil rights matters.

Chances are, King would have been pleased with much of the progress that has been made. At 71, he would have seen the world change tremendously during his lifetime. And many of those changes occurred because of his efforts and the efforts of countless others who worked tirelessly to change the laws of this nation.

He would have been the first to say that while he is the one honored on Martin Luther King Day, the honor is actually shared by all of those, black and nonblack alike, who for years championed the cause of civil rights and justice for all. Many of their names never made the pages of history books. Many of them didn't get their names in the paper, or their pictures on the scratchy film of old black-and-white TV news reports. But they were on the front lines, and they made a difference.

King would be happy to see the progress that African-Americans have made in this country.

He would be pleased to see that despite the carping of conservative ideologues, three decades of affirmative action have integrated the professions and expanded the black middle class. In fact, the number of blacks who would be considered middle class has tripled in the past 30 years.
King would be happy to see progress on political fronts. In 1968, an African-American being elected mayor was big news. Today, black mayors are nothing new; even Stone Mountain, Ga., once a Ku Klux Klan stronghold, has one.
King would be thrilled to see today's black unemployment rate, lower than it's ever been at 7.2 percent.
He'd be ecstatic about a report from the United Negro College Fund, noting that the number of blacks earning bachelor's degrees increased 63 percent from 1987 to 1996, climbing to 89,400. And he'd be happy that graduate degrees among African-Americans rose to 24,500 in 1996, up 87 percent from 1987. The number of doctoral degrees awarded to blacks rose 54 percent during that time.

King would be proud of those achievements.

But King would likely be dismayed that while many things have improved in this country, others have not.

He surely would not have been happy about the many African-Americans who seem to be permanently stuck in a quicksand-like underclass.
King would certainly be bothered by the disproportionately high rate of incarceration among black males. He'd surely wonder if they are more prone to crime for environmental reasons, or more likely to be scapegoated by the criminal justice system.
He would be disturbed that blacks have a lower life expectancy than whites, a higher infant mortality rate and overall poorer health care.
King would be troubled by the low rate of marriage among young blacks and the high number of out-of-wedlock births. He would know of the connection between out-of-wedlock births and poverty, and be dismayed that little was being done about the problem.
King would be unhappy with the St. Louis area, one which has had some progress on the racial front but which has yet to face up to the fact that it's racially polarized, and which still hasn't figured out that most of its other problems - from education to urban sprawl - are tied to its polarization.

As we prepare to celebrate King's birthday, it would be wise for us to think not only of how far we have come but how far we still have to go - and what we need to do to get there.

More than anything, King would have wanted that.

Daniel Schesch - Webweaver

back