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JANUARY 14, 2017ADDRESS BY
THE HONORABLE ALEXANDER WILLIAMS, JR.
UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE (RETIRED)
ON THE OCCASION THE
CITY OF COLLEGE PARK TRIBUTE TO
REV. DR.MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND MEMORIAL CHAPEL, COLLEGE PARK, MARYLAND
Let me express my joy and appreciation for this privilege of delivering a few remarks on the occasion of the City of College Park tribute to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This annual national celebration is so important because of the leadership of the various organizations, coalitions, alliances and those foot soldiers and pioneers for justice down through the years who teamed together to create the climate for change, who left a mark, who were the voice of conscious, who left a standard and model of excellence for us to follow, and who contributed to establishing this weekend a national holiday.
Your theme,“Has the Dream been deferred” is an excellent one and the short answer to this question is no. We must not become so complacent that we prevent Dr. King’s dream from being realized. But the related question which provides the impetus for making sure the dream is not deferred is “Where do we go from here.” That posed question is the subject of one of Dr. King’s greatest speeches and is what I want to address this afternoon. As Dr. King mentioned in that speech, you cannot begin to answer the question without understanding where we are now. Here we are in 2017 (almost 54 years since Dr. King spoke about a dream of freedom and equality for all) where we now find ourselves living in a worldwhere we are confronted with the challenges posing great difficulties—some challenges similar but many different that those things faced by Dr. King. Our public schools are struggling, the American criminal justice system is broken,there is an ugly political climate and partisan battles griping the Congress in Washington and spilling over to the gerrymandering and partisan battles over redistricting maps drawn bystate houses across America. Where are we? In a shocking development, the US Inspector General is now investigating the FBI, and the relationship between law enforcement and the community could not be any worse. There are increases in violence and shootings (762 homicides in Chicago), increases in mass killings (the latest random shooting at the Ft Lauderdale, Florida airport), an increase in drug overdose deaths, and since the election there has been an increase in hate speech and in hate crimes (including the disgusting behavior by 4 young people torturing a mentally challenged youth and then posting it on Facebook). Where is glue of decency and the moral fabric to hold our society together? Where do we go from here? Rather than just throw our hands up, we can use the message of Dr King as a model for the actions we must take.
While some portions ofDr. King’s dream have been delayed, deferred and in some instances even been a victim of retrenchment, Dr. King remains an extraordinary, and in my view, the outstanding figure of the 20th century. We cannot take the annual celebrations around the country for granted or simply go through the motions with a reading or getting a charge out of a few sound bites of his famous “I have a dream” speech. Nor must we allow this holiday celebration to be reduced to an exercise in political correctness. Like so many of our forbearers, MLK paved the way for so many of us. When we take a look at our individual successes, in a sense all of us are his living legacies and our accomplishments represent significant fulfillments of Dr. King’s Dream. To the young people, I say to you that you should build your own library on MLK by getting his books, books about him, get his speeches, his writings, his sermons, and his letters. Get your hands on all you can get about MLK. Once you read and reflect upon this material on this great man and then stretch your minds and imaginations, you will see that his messages are very relevant and can give you so much insight on the issues and challenges of today. While there are so many powerful messages that Dr. King left with us [many of which have great relevance today] time will permit me to only lift up a few points this evening.
First, MLK was about education. He believed that the key to success is through the door of education/learning/further training. Too many of us today do not take advantage of education, training and additional learning which are readily available to us. I often tell young people that education is not a sentence to be served but is an opportunity to be seized. MLK spoke of education. He once said: “Education must enable one to sift and weigh evidence, to discern the truth from the false, the real from the unreal and the facts from fiction,” or as I used to tell some of the defendants who appear before me for trial—to separate what is a defense from what is nonsense. Where do we go from here? It is critically important today that we increase our learning so that we can obtain information which will enable us to grow in wisdom and to better understand the significance of policies, practices and decisions which are made daily and which affect our living in this highlycomplex and technological world. I left the bench a couple years ago, not to sit on the porch and rock but rather I was led to establishthe Judge Alexander Williams, Jr. Center in order to engage in policy development and to be surrounded by a university, faculty, eager students, and a supportive administration where I could to make a difference in the status of underserved communities. Education, learning, and sharing were priorities for Dr. King. We must emulate that model.
Second, have you noticed how portions of Dr. King’s speeches and statements have been cited and used by people of diverse backgrounds, diverse races, various nationalities and portions of his speeches are often cited by individuals of diverse perspectives? His words are cited in support of various aspects of injustice—be it for the traditional challenges to discrimination or as support to challenge reverse discrimination—all depending on the perspective or the spin of the person or groups citing Dr. King’s words. These distinct usages of his words point to something else terrific about this great man. Dr. King had a global, visionary and broad perspective. Dr. King,while noted for his contribution to civil rights,often addressed issues affecting Asia and Africa. And long before modern advances in cyberspace and information technology, Dr. King often said that through technological advances, the scientific genius of people has made of this world a neighborhood but through our moral and ethical commitment, we must make of it a brotherhood.
Where do we go from here? Well, instead of continuing our tendencies fornarrow and parochial thinking, we must take on Dr. King’s more global and broadperspective. The world is smaller today because of technology, communication, immigration, transportation and cultural and social integration. The truth is that the varieties of cultures around the globe are interrelated and interdependent upon one another. Because many of the world’s problems are similar, there is an element of commonality which requires understanding and dialogue among people. Only through Dr. King’s global approach where human beings listen to one another, and not necessarily always agreeing with others but respecting other ways of looking at issues, can we come together to enhance the overall environment and foster peace, improved health, better education, human rights and justice. The reality of life is that our societyis made up of a diversity of people with different experiences, different cultures, different faiths and perspective,and it is clear that Dr. King believed that through diversity there is unity and strength. If we are to solve the enormous problems of our time, we must hang together or hang separately. Things that differ among us must be de-emphasized, and,as the great theologian Howard Thurman wrote in his book “The Search for Common Ground”,we should focus on the commonality of issues that really matter. Dr. King’s global perspective is something we should stress today.
NEVER LET GO OF HOPE
Where do we go from here? We must not throw in the towel but as a third point, we must keep the door of hope alive and well. The spirit of hope has been a powerful weapon of inspiration of so many cultures, whether we are talking about African-American history celebration in February, or Women’s History Month and Saint Patrick’s Day celebrations in March, or the Asian Pacific Heritage Month in May or the Native American Day Celebrations or the Muslim American Heritage Month both in October (just to cite a few), it was the spirit of hope that drove these cultures and others across the years to believe in the coming of a new day, that tomorrow will be better, brighter and at some point there will be a new day filled with justice, pride, joy, and peace. That as long as there was a glimmer of hope that changes would occur, these celebrants would keep their eyes on the prize.
This was the same message of hope which drove MLK. Take a look at the erected monument on the mall in memory of Dr. MLK. The highlight of that monument is a 30 foot, eight inch Stone of Hope statute which made MLK the first Black person honored with a monument on the National Mall in the nation’s capital. We must be guided today by MLK’s belief in hope and his drive for justice on behalf of all of humanity. Some here today may have recognized that in his speeches, his sermons, his writings, there was and is a kind of hope, power in his voice, a kind of wishful thinking and confidence King carried and which made him believe that, despite the doom and gloom everywhere, there was a bright side somewhere and he would not stop searching for it until he found it.
In my various presentations over the years which I have been privilege to deliver, I often make reference to his powerful words. He once said: “This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew [out of the mountain of despair] a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day." "Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.”
Where do we go from here? We think and maintain hope—Listen to Dr. Kings words just before his death: “Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now,because I've been to the mountaintop.And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land!”
That is the response to the question“where we go from here?”-Knowing, expecting and hoping that the best is yet to come. That there is a tomorrow, that it can be done, that sunshine awaits us, that winters may be cold, nights may be dark, pain may be severe, our jobs may be insecure and the economy has affected so many of us--yet we don’t give up or ever let go of hope. Hope. That is what drove King and it hope which must drive us in 2017 and beyond.
Finally, in terms of where we go from here, we must be guided by MLK’s belief in being responsible. I suspect that this is the most important message he left for us today: Being responsible. Being responsible means moving from a civil rights focus to more of a civil responsibility mode. Previously, African-Americans, women and other minority communities had no influence, no ballot, noequal access to jobs, no money, no political representation, and no right to go to certain schools and occupied virtually no public and private leadership roles. This former open, notorious, and legally sanctioned status of exclusion and denial of basic rights has changed. Basic civil rights do currently exist. While there are many more challenges of injustice to address, we do recognize that people previously excluded now hold positions in public and private leadership;those previously denied the right to vote can now vote; people formerly with little education or little means to get education do have more education and do possess the right to go to school and learn;many people who formerly were penniless now possess a few dollars and have some resources to create a kind of community that is much more fair and just than what it was. Through legislation, litigation, court decisions, policies, executive orders, and sweat and toil—basic civil rights are in place--yet, civil rights without the follow through of civil responsibilities are meaningless. The emphasis, therefore is, (to borrow a point lifted up by my ethics professor, Dr. Cherly Sanders, many years ago when I was a student in her ethics class at Howard Divinity School) to shift from civil rights to civil responsibilities whereby those of us with a significant presence in public and private positions and those of us in positions of leadership must do what we can toreallocate resources and improve the plight of others. That is a big part of Dr. King’s dream—that people act responsiblyby making a difference, byquestioning or speaking out where appropriate, by creating opportunities, by changing the current culture, by helping to reallocate resources and by finding a way to make education, politics and economics work in communities that were formerly the victims of injustice and unfairness. We must become responsible. There is an obligation to bring changes in the “business as usual” culture. There must be,as Dr, Sanders argued, a shift from victimization to being agents for change.
Being responsible agents of change require us to adopt Dr. King’s passion and drive on behalf of humanity—that is to reach out and help somebody, to do the right thing, and to do our part to assist in securingfairness and justice without delay. MLK once said: “Make a career of humanity and you will make a greater person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in.” And let us never forget those memorable quotes he often used in his speeches and sermons: “I am convinced that we shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” We shall overcome because Carlyle is right when he says, “No lie can live forever.” We shall overcome because William Cullen Bryan is right when he says. “Truth crushed to earth shall rise again. Being responsible and being an agent of change often requires us to upset the applecart and stir things up from time to time by challenging the status quo.
Let me close by reminding all of us that Dr. King’s Dream for humanity must not be deferred. Whatever career or vocation each of us are presently in (be it education, construction, military, private business, health care, computer technology, public service, transportation, law enforcement, politics,administrative assistants, engineering, lawyering, or whatever laboratory of life we now find ourselves in), we must spend a portion of our vocation becoming dedicated and responsible fighterson behalf of humanity and for justice. And we cannot fall prey to the myth of time. In his letter on why we can’t wait, Dr. King called this myth of time afalse argument that went something like this: “Only time can solve problems that we face in the area of human relations”. And to those individuals whoare struggling to make justice a reality-it was said to them“why don’t you wait and stop pushing so hard? If you be patient and wait, the problem will work itself out.” But I leave you with Dr. King’s response: “the only answer that one can give this myth is that time is neutral. Now is the time. Time waits for no one.” We must act responsibly-- not next month or next year, not at some point in the near or distant future-- not when we think we have it made or—or when we think we have reached a point when we are shielded or out of harm’s way—Oh no. Not later but right now—today. Today. Here in
College Park. Today—here in Maryland-the Free State. Today. Now is the time.
Godspeed.