Without question, America’s proudest achievement in the 46 years since Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination was the election of a black President five years and two months ago.
When Dr. King was striding toward his prime in the 1950s and ‘60s, Our country was so riven by racial hatred that a black candidate would have finished third in a two-man race.
A second major racial miracle is that for the first time in the history of the world, the black man and black woman in America has an equal chance for success with a white man and a white woman.
Neither would have happened without the messianic presence of Dr. King, who fairly can be presented as the single most significant American presence of the last century.
While others will contend that the economic opportunity leveling of the races is a superior accomplishment that will leave a more enduring imprint on American society – I agree – I called the Presidential election the greater accomplishment by our country because it required the accession of a large number of Americans from all 50 states. Call it a positive populist uprising in the name of democracy and fairness.
Just a Few Persons
Economic leveling of blacks and whites was not engineered by the people, but by right-minded members of Congress.
Black men can marry white women and white men can marry black woman pretty much without notice in our times – because of Dr. King’s teachings and influence.
Black actors have reached an unprecedented level of presence, on screen and on stage, because Dr. King successfully perfumed Americans with the notion that we of different colors should be judged by our talents rather than pigment.
How would Dr. King feel if he returned to America this afternoon?
He would hold a split opinion – exceedingly proud of what blacks have achieved, because of their talents, not the artificiality of odious affirmative action.
But he would be disappointed that great quantities of black men have betrayed their culture and their womenfolk by grossly abandoning their responsibilities as fathers. This is the main reason that embarrassingly large numbers of black families are (often crippled) single-parent homes, plunged into poverty. Runaway fathers also are the main reason three-quarters of black babies are born out of wedlock.
Dr. King, who has been gone for more years than he was with us, would summarize his visit:
Impressive progress, but with a mountain of work lying ahead in restoring black families. When fixed, that will put the black community on a faster healing track than it ever has traveled.