Dr. Martin Luther King: In memoriam An America facing the increasing threat of an entangling war abroad. An America where the right to vote was unsure, despite constitutional guarantees. A world torn apart by hated, by religious and regional divisions and destruction. All of these were realities of the world faced by Dr. King so many years ago, when he made his famous "I have a dream" speech in 1963. Today, Vietnam has been replaced by Iraq as a constant, nagging international threat. Voting prohibitions and segregation has been ended, but still the ability of individuals to freely and fairly make their voices heard through the vehicle of the ballot box remains uncertain in many counties across America. But even in the face of all of these threats, Dr. King was still able to dream of a better tomorrow. And his willingness to dream created a world, while still imperfect, has seen the successes of African-American men and women, proud college graduates and professionals, across the land today.

But, in 1963 Dr. King said, he did not simply...

Success must not lead to complacency Today, African-American faces are seen in America's newsrooms, are named across movie marquees, are seen on the pages of leading business and trade periodicals, and are amongst the leading intellectual voices of American academic discourse. From David Shippel to Cornell West, from Colin Powell to Oprah, African-American's presence is seen, felt, and heard across the American nation.
Americans can no longer see those of African descent as relegated to ghettos or footnotes in history. Whether they will or not, all Americans must daily bear witness as to how African-American culture creatively informs American culture in a constant and living basis. Toni Morrison was the last American author to win the Nobel Prize for literature, and it is both sobering and uplifting to think that once, it would have been illegal in America…