by Serwan Zangana
Understanding the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is a key to understanding the struggle, persistence, and sacrifices of a human to achieve rights for the rest of human beings to exist and live in a society that was mostly built on their shoulders. For many people, Dr. King is a symbol of vitality and courage, which stood up in the middle of the terror of racism and defied injustice.
Dr. King emerged from the reality of segregated American society and lived under the oppression of the U.S system run by only one race. Apparently, Emancipation Proclamation was just a title on the paper as the racism, the segregation, and the brutality of the authority continued as the Black community was being traumatized every day.
“I have a dream,” Dr. King said. And indeed, it was not a typical dream like any dream. It was a revolution that organized millions of people to break their silence and erupt against racism. Dr. King’s speeches and lectures brightened the path for millions of Blacks toward freedom in the darkness of an era of segregation.
Dr. King was one of the distinguished leaders that regardless of Black’s suffering and agony in America, he believed that America belongs to them as to Whites, and the greatness of America will not be true without Blacks. “And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.” Dr. King said.
Regardless of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which abolished the slavery, but the reality of America witnessed otherwise. The U.S system and the majority government departments continued to embrace racism and abridge the Blacks from basic human rights. Dr. King’s dream and vital hope continued with peaceful rhetoric to bring all Americans together and live equally. “We must not allow our creative protests to degenerate into physical violence.” Dr. King said.
Dr. King’s philosophy in struggling for freedom and justice was through peace, and such a philosophy became lessons to be followed by the freedom seekers as his legacy completed the American history. And further, Dr. King’s peaceful revolution and his philosophy for equal rights, liberty, and justice transcended beyond America, as he became an icon for the oppressed people across the world.
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly” Dr. King said.
Dr. King’s birthday was a birthday of the vision and the belief that put the lights on dark areas in American society, and regardless of the vicious authority that controlled the system, Dr. King’s faith in America as a nation for all has never perished. “ I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
Dr. King’s journey, struggle, and sacrifices have crossed the boundaries of being an American civil rights leader only, in fact, he is a leader of human rights and a global icon for humanity.
