In his 1967 address, “Beyond Vietnam, A Time to Break Silence,” Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said:
We are now faced with the fact that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there “is” such a thing as being too late. This is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action.
King spoke during a time of tremendous political uncertainty. On the cusp of an election that would decide the fate of poor and working-class communities. When Americans’ declining trust in the very institutions created to protect them caused rifts at every level of government. A time of zealots using violence and intimidation to deny Constitutional rights to speech, assembly and equal rights under law. During an era where domestic terrorists repeatedly violated the fragile sense of peace in churches and schools once thought to be sanctuaries for the most vulnerable. King denounced our collective addiction to violence here at home and abroad. The past is always prologue in the United States.
Three years ago, my family and I made a pilgrimage to Selma, Alabama to participate in the 50th anniversary commemoration of the Bloody Sunday march. We were flanked by two older gentlemen as we waited at the base of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Both veterans. Both foot soldiers who bore the physical scars of participating in the original march. Both had been run out of Selma simply for asserting their rights as American citizens.
Together, we stood waiting to hear then-President Barack Obama speak. One of the foot soldiers standing beside me began to weep, overcome by the realization of a day that he never thought possible.
There, on that bridge, with its pavement soaked in the tears of children and stained by the blood of martyrs, we were reminded of America’s infinite promise. As organizers were developing a plan of action for the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery, there were naysayers who asked, “What difference is that going to make anyway? Why disturb others, just to prove a point? Bringing it up just makes the problems worse.”
Undeterred by the violence and threats of harm that befell them, King led more than 2,000 people to complete the march from Selma to Montgomery just two weeks after the bloody clash.
