Now some 40 years after Dr. King‘s murder, Senator Barack Obama is the first African-American to have a real a chance of becoming the country's first black president. Reverend Jackson says the candidacy of Barack Obama shows that the country is less reactionary when it comes to race. "I see the seeds Dr. King sowed bearing fruit today. The massive white vote for Barack; he is the conduit through which the newer, better America is expressing itself."
A poll taken recently illustrates one obstacle to fulfilling King's dream: Americans don't agree on what ordeals African-Americans face. Forty-six percent of African-Americans say the main reason blacks struggle to embrace opportunities is that they're still playing catch-up after years of oppression. Many white Americans, however, have a different view: 53 percent say African-Americans have failed to take responsibility for their own destiny. Only 18 percent of white Americans polled felt that rebounding from oppression impacted current opportunities.
Last year's “Jena 6” case illustrates that African-Americans continue to struggle for equal justice. The case involved six black teenagers who were charged with assaulting a white classmate in Jena, Louisiana after a noose was found hanging from a tree. Many people viewed the charges against the teens as excessive and racially motivated. As a result, national protests involving thousands of people, including the Reverend Al Sharpton, marched in the streets of Jena.
"The reason we were able to get 30,000 in Jena is because people see the disparity in the criminal justice system," Sharpton says. The incarceration rate among black men remains a huge problem. The incarceration rates for blacks are higher today than they were in the mid-'60s. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, at the end of 2006, there were 3,042 black male prisoners per 100,000 black males in the U.S., compared with 487 white male prisoners per 100,000.
On the occasion of the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. King, Senator Barack Obama, campaigning in Indiana, held a moment's silence at the beginning of his rally saying that "through his faith and courage and wisdom, Dr Martin Luther King moved an entire nation. When he was killed ... it left a wound on the soul of our nation that has not yet fully healed."
Introducing Obama, the Reverend Jesse Jackson told a crowd at the annual King scholarship breakfast, "It's a long, nonstop line between the march in Selma in 1965 and the inauguration in Washington in 2009. As I recall, Dr. King wasn't hanging out in Manhattan, Dr. King wasn't hanging out in Beverly Hills," .
Now, almost 45 years after Dr. King’s infamous speech, America is a land of contrasts, with some dreams fulfilled while many others are unresolved. "You see the signs of change," says the Rev. Jesse Jackson, "The change is not complete and it is in some cases slow, but we see evidence of morning time."
Amid the disingenuous criticism suggesting that Barack Obama should have cut himself off from Reverend Jeremiah White for his rhetoric is the lack of understanding for the experiences of countless individuals such as Reverend White. Time will tell how far the country has advanced towards positive change. This presidential election campaign will be a good barometer of the change factor.
Lisa KARPOVA
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