On this day, we are pleased to post this essay by\u00a0Lucas Morel<\/strong>, Class of 1960 Professor of Ethics and Politics at Washington and Lee University and long time former faculty member at Teaching American History, who considers the lasting legacy of King\u2019s great speech:<\/em><\/p>\n Equality, Fairness and Brotherhood: Common Ground for the Nation\u2019s Diverse Citizenry<\/strong><\/p>\n August 28th, 2013, marks the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s \u201cI Have a Dream\u201d speech,\u201d which ranks among the most famous speeches of the 20th<\/sup>\u00a0century.\u00a0 Delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, King\u2019s keynote address was heard by over a quarter million people gathered for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.\u00a0 King declared that the goals of the modern Civil Rights Movement were simply \u201cto make real the promises of democracy,\u201d which he found in the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.\u00a0 What he called \u201ca dream deeply rooted in the American dream\u201d was based upon a faith, both biblical and constitutional, that \u201cone day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed\u2014we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.\u201d<\/p>\n With only five blacks serving in Congress, and riots mounting that summer of 1963, the 34-year-old Baptist preacher had faith that the white American majority would do right by the Constitution and their consciences.\u00a0 This they did, most notably by passing the Civil Rights Act the following summer and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.\u00a0 To be sure, a legislative full press by President (and former Senate majority leader) Lyndon B. Johnson was instrumental to their passage, pursued as a tribute to the slain President John F. Kennedy, who lobbied for a major Civil Rights bill in June 1963.\u00a0 But King\u2019s televised speech kept the \u201ccitizenship rights\u201d of black Americans on the national agenda, and thus paved the way for the passage of serious civil rights legislation for the first time in almost a hundred years.<\/p>\n No aspect of King\u2019s dream has provoked more controversy than his hope that his children \u201cwill one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.\u201d\u00a0 Fifty years later, with affirmative action still debated in the highest court of the land, Americans remain divided over the relevance of race in securing equality under the law.\u00a0 Arguing that the Constitution should be color-blind, Chief Justice John Roberts has written that \u201cthe way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.\u201d\u00a0 But Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg counters that the Constitution is \u201ccolor conscious to prevent discrimination being perpetuated and to undo the effects of past discrimination.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Simply put, should race be the measure of any person\u2019s constitutional rights?<\/p>\n When King spoke the language of individual, God-given rights, he found common ground for the nation\u2019s diverse citizenry to occupy without jeopardizing any individual\u2019s opportunity to succeed through their own work and effort.\u00a0 But only a year after his \u201cI Have a Dream\u201d speech, King doubted that in his day, true equality before the law could be achieved without \u201ccompensatory consideration\u201d for those deprived as a result of American slavery\u2014a category of citizens that King argued would include millions of poor whites in addition to most blacks of his day.\u00a0 How does one reconcile King\u2019s devotion to human equality and individual rights with his later call for a Bill of Rights for the Disadvantaged and a guaranteed annual income?\u00a0 His \u201cI Have a Dream\u201d Speech does not answer this question, but does make its appeal on the basis of traditional American principles of equality, fairness, and brotherhood.\u00a0 Only by respecting these did King believe Americans could \u201ctransform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.\u201d
Lucas E. Morel, Class of 1960 Professor of Ethics and Politics Washington and Lee University.<\/p>\n![\"Faculty\"](\"https:\/\/teachingamericanhistory.org\/content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Morel-animated_MP7_0246-1024x682.jpg\")
Read the\u00a0complete text of King\u2019s address<\/a>\u00a0to the March on Washington.<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n