What King Would Say Today: 50 years after “The Dream”
As we remember “The Dream” that roused a nation from its slumber, and the King who delivered it on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, a common question is “What would Martin Luther King, Jr. say today?” The question—routinely asked on news networks, Facebook posts, and in barbershops—reveals something telling about Dr. King and about this nation. The fact that we would look beyond fifty years of history to contemplate one man’s moral critique reveals how far beyond his time was King’s moral conscience and vision. He was a rare human being whose legacy is timeless. Dr. Vincent Harding, one of his close companions, often says “King was much more than there was time for him to be.”
Yet the question also reveals the lack of modern Kings whom we trust enough to give an answer from their own perspective. At least, there is no consensus on who these modern leaders are. As our nation gropes through a sea of moral quandaries—everything from Trayvon Martin to mass incarceration to human sexuality to immigration to war overseas—we sail without a clear captain of the ship. Are we lost? Who are the leaders of today with the moral veracity to speak a prophetic word in this context?
I wonder if we are asking the wrong question when we ask “What would Dr. King say today?” because it’s impossible to answer. Who can truly know? I am friends with a man who comes closest to knowing—the same Dr. Harding who was quoted above. Harding is the most profound living interpreter of the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr.; he walked beside King on the front lines of the southern-based Freedom Movement. He was there, fifty years ago, at the Lincoln Memorial. He helped craft parts of King's eloquent messages. If there is any person on earth who could answer The Question, it is him. While I have never asked that particular question to Dr. Harding, I have asked others like it—questions that reveal my longing for a leader to show us the way again. Not long ago, as Erika and I sat across from him in a restaurant, I asked how well he thought President Obama was doing, and how well King had done, in casting a vision for “The Beloved Community”—King’s ultimate goal. Dr. Harding is the most encouraging person I know, but his response was the closest he has ever come to outright rebuking me. He said very sternly, “I am looking at two leaders right in front of me. I want you to stop waiting for someone else to come.” I took a big gulp and sat there quietly for what felt like minutes. The implication: King’s work is done, but what about yours?
We live in a dynamic tension: We must celebrate the dream while dreaming anew for our day. We must honor King without trying to relive his life. We must recall what he said while finding ways to speak with substance in these times. I propose a new set of questions in place of the impossible one: What will we say today amidst the moral injustices of our times? How do we become the type of people who have anything worth saying at all? How do we cultivate our relationship with the same God whom King worshipped in order to gain the kind of courage and clarity that he possessed? How might we apply King’s theological leanings to a landscape that requires new strategies?
May King’s words and legacy be a vital source of our courage as we continue the work that he and many unsung heroes beside and before him lived and died for. But the words I most hear coming from the grave of a king on this historic day are simply, “You’re up.”