FORTY-ONE years ago, I was blessed to spend the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s last birthday with him, along with Allard Lowenstein and staff members like Andy Young, Hosea Williams, Dorothy Cotton, James Bevel, James Orange and others. I recall vividly how he spent that day — and I mention it now because it’s instructive to all of us if we are to follow Dr. King’s example and not just admire him.
When Barack Obama is sworn in as the nation’s first African-American president, many will view that moment as the culmination of the modern civil rights movement, a struggle most often identified with Dr. King.
It is fitting that Mr. Obama will assume the nation’s highest office one day after we celebrate Dr. King’s birthday. What would Dr. King, who spent much of his life changing conditions so that African-Americans could vote without fear of death or intimidation, think of the rise of the nation’s 44th president?
I can say without reservation that he would be beaming. I am equally confident that he would not let the euphoria of the moment blind us to the unfinished business that lies ahead. And he would spell out those challenges in biblical terms: feed the hungry, clothe the naked and study war no more.
Dr. King spent his 39th birthday working. I remember him coming to the basement of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. He walked in that day around 9 a.m., after breakfast with his family, wearing blue jeans and a windbreaker. (I recall a bright, sunny day.) He convened the Southern Christian Leadership Conference staff and a rainbow coalition — blacks from the Deep South, whites from Appalachia, Jewish allies from New York, Latino farm worker organizers — to plan what would be his last campaign, the Poor People’s March to the nation’s capital. Though Dr. King had met with increasing hostility from the press and government, his mood was upbeat because we were energized by the vision of a new initiative to advance our movement.
Around noon Xernona Clayton, a friend of the King family, walked in with a birthday cake. She teased Dr. King, saying that he was “so busy you forgot to celebrate your own birthday.” Slightly embarrassed, Dr. King blew out the candles. We must have eaten the cake in record time because it seemed that within moments the plates were cleared and we were back in our meeting — with Al Lowenstein conducting a workshop about the march and how to step up pressure to end the Vietnam War.
That’s the model we should follow this week — and beyond. We should celebrate the election of our new president. And then we should get back to work to complete the unfinished business of making America a more perfect union.
Jesse L. Jackson Sr., a former aide to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is the president and founder of the RainbowPUSH Coalition.http://my.barackobama.com/page/dashboard/public/gGWdjc
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