Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Memorial–DC

With the dedication of The Dr. Martin Luther King Junior Memorial in
Washington, D.C., we move into a new era.
I wish that I could say that African-Americans around the country are all doing wonderfully and that we are all in a position to celebrate together this fitting memorial. Great thanks and respect are due to the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity for getting this monumental effort off the ground and raising so much money.
This summer, I travelled South as I do as often as possible–to Florida to see some of my closest friends–the majority of whom happen to be African-American. Everyone had pretty much the same thing to say–we have moved backward in America, not only in Florida but all over the U.S. Racism, they said, was about as virulent as it had been before the Civil Rights Movement in the sixties.
I was a part of that Movement, and I got my training in Alachua County, Florida, and the way I see it now, I more or less apprenticed myself to The Black Southern Community–I was a white New Yorker.
So Dr. King’s Memorial and the idea of The Stone of Hope should inspire us.
What would Saul Alinsky say now?
More later.

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