No one could have predicted then that his birth would one day become a national holiday.
But thousands had a vague premonition of his death for years, which became crystal clear in 1968, including Martin Luther King Jr. himself.
His flight to Memphis, Tenn., on April 3, 1968, was even delayed by a bomb scare.
“But I’m not concerned about that now,” he told a crowd. “I just want to do God’s will. And he’s allowed me to go to the mountain. And I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land.”
Less than 24 hours later — on April 4, 1968 — he would die from an assassin’s bullet.
Sadly, 50 years later, that “promised land” King spoke of seems as far away now as it did then.
Recently, an Associated Press report detailed the issues King struggled against then and their status today.
On segregation, it found that while schools were largely integrated by the 1980s, many have re-segregated.
One prominent study found that, in 1988, some 44 percent of black students went to majority-white schools. Only 20 percent of black students do so today.
The Voting Rights Act passed by a special session of Congress in 1965 was a direct result of King’s focus on the difficulties blacks faced registering to vote.
In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the heart of that legislation, which required nine states, most in the South, not to change their election laws without federal approval.
It’s common knowledge that the inequality of income has gotten worse, but many fail to connect that with levels of poverty in America today. They should.
The percentage of people living in deep poverty — less than half of the federal poverty level — has increased since 1975.
Before President Johnson signed off on the Fair Housing Act — a week after King’s death — legal discrimination in rentals and home ownership was common practice.
Though those legal roadblocks no longer exist, the subprime loan crisis, the Great Recession and other economic setbacks wiped out many gains for black home ownership since then.
King would also struggle with both major political parties vying to ramp up military spending that he claimed undermined America’s moral authority.
Needless to say, that constant desire to fulfill the military’s wish list has come at the expense of addressing many issues, including poverty.
Judging by these issues’ status a half a century later, many may doubt ever getting to the promised land.
True, heaven on earth may never exist, but in the land of the free and the home of the brave, anything is possible.
“Cowardice asks the question — is it safe?” King noted. “Conscience asks the question — is it right?“
Morgantown Area News
'Thursday, April 25, 2024'
