{"id":1317774,"date":"2020-01-19T19:16:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-20T02:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/cepeda-column-kings-dream-still-hasnt-come-true\/"},"modified":"2020-01-19T19:16:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-20T02:16:00","slug":"cepeda-column-kings-dream-still-hasnt-come-true","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/cepeda-column-kings-dream-still-hasnt-come-true\/","title":{"rendered":"Cepeda column: King\u2019s dream still hasn\u2019t come true"},"content":{"rendered":"
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CHICAGO \u2014 When I was in college, my roommate and I would together drive the six hours to our southern Illinois campus the day before the spring semester started. Our tradition was that, while my friend took a turn driving, I would read aloud Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s \u201cI Have a Dream\u201d speech, which was printed in our local newspaper annually on the Monday commemorating the activist.<\/p>\n

That was a quarter of a century ago \u2014 before our first black president seemed to have made good on the promise of an America that could see beyond race.<\/p>\n

It was also before white supremacists seized on King\u2019s ideal of not being judged by the color of one\u2019s skin but by the content of one\u2019s character in order to push back against what they perceive as rampant racism against whites in the form of affirmative action and other preferential treatments for historically marginalized people of color.<\/p>\n

And it was before blacks, as well as others of color, wondered whether being \u201cgood\u201d (or, in fact, \u201ctwice as good as whites\u201d and hoping to at least attain \u201chalf as much\u201d) was really the way to gain equality in a country that refused to see the lasting, daily impact of the legacy of slavery and the Jim Crow era.<\/p>\n

It was at a time when, in public schools across the country, trotting out the \u201cI Have a Dream\u201d speech in mid-January and then discussing King \u2014 along with Rosa Parks and Jackie Robinson \u2014 during a few social studies lessons in February was considered super progressive.<\/p>\n

And it was long before African Americans would look critically at King\u2019s life \u2014 such as his purported sexism and marital infidelities \u2014 and consider how his legacy of nonviolence is often used to point out the failings of today\u2019s more aggressive, less polite Black Lives Matter movement. (Don\u2019t miss Mychal Denzel Smith\u2019s electric 2018 essay \u201cIs King All That We Are Allowed to Become?\u201d in The Atlantic.)<\/p>\n

\u201cI Have a Dream\u201d holds up through the ages, but it\u2019s not difficult to imagine that King would have hated his \u201cday\u201d being the prequel to a single month out of each year when black people are recognized as important, positive contributors to the greatness of America.<\/p>\n

While the month does give saintly treatment to a handful of very important black icons, those same icons would probably be horrified to learn that Americans\u2019 interest in outstanding, important and pivotal black people ended, more or less, in the \u201860s.<\/p>\n

In a perfect world, Black History Month \u2014 like the months celebrating the heritage of women, Latinos\/Hispanic, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders and Native Americans \u2014 would be every month, just like white history is celebrated. They are not separate, they are equal.<\/p>\n

Since perfection does not describe how history is taught in the public schools or reported in the media, it falls on us to seek out alternative sources for information in February.<\/p>\n

The Civil Rights History Project of the Library of Congress (www.loc.gov\/collections\/civil-rights-history-project\/) is a great place to bookmark on your web browser. This collection couldn\u2019t make it easier to read an article or essay on a little corner of history, such as the role young people played in the fight for civil rights or how music fueled the movement.<\/p>\n

Even more enticing are the many video-recorded oral histories of people who lived in the communities struggling to win their civil rights and what their everyday lives were really like. Just prepare your chest to tighten \u00ad\u2014 these are powerful, emotional stories.<\/p>\n

This idea to explore black history might be one we return to, or it might fall by the wayside as we navigate busy, hectic lives. But, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the chances are high that you\u2019ll see a copy of his famous speech scroll across your news feed or posted in your social media streams and notifications.<\/p>\n

Take a moment to read through the speech. It\u2019s not long. And it remains tragically relevant today.<\/p>\n

While there\u2019s no comparing living conditions for some African Americans in the Jim Crow South with the lowest-income blacks today, it\u2019s still true that, regardless of educational attainment, many often still live on a \u201clonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity.\u201d<\/p>\n

And, for people of all races and ethnicities, King\u2019s words ring out as strongly today as ever, because now is absolutely still \u201cthe time to make justice a reality for all of God\u2019s children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Esther Cepeda\u2019s email address is estherjcepeda@washpost.com<\/a> or follow her on Twitter @estherjcepeda. (c) 2020, Washington Post Writers Group<\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO \u2014 When I was in college, my roommate and I would together drive the six hours to our southern Illinois campus the day before the spring semester started. Our tradition was that, while my friend took a turn driving, I would read aloud Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s \u201cI Have a Dream\u201d speech, which was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1317774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-06 04:35:09","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1317774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1317774\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1317774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1317774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1317774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}