by Annie San Martin
Martin Luther King (MLK) was an extraordinary American who believed in the "dream" that both " Black men as well as white men — would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." He wanted all of God's children to live in harmony. Dr. King believed in the struggle of his black brethren and wanted to do this in peace. His life was chaotic: at 33, he was promoting his civil rights agenda; at 34, he caught the nation's attention with his "I Have a Dream" Speech; at 35, he won the Nobel Peace Prize; but sadly at 39, his life ended tragically by assassination. Yet his legacy and message still resonates today.
Dr. King stayed true to his nonviolence stance for Civil Rights with his march in Birmingham against unfair hiring tactics among blacks. In the north, many blacks wanted violence as the only way to change things concerning racism. Dr. King felt this was wrong and organized camp-ins for peace in Vietnam and for Civil Rights for all. He wanted a nonviolent way through camp-ins to show the plights of the poor. He once said that someday it would be "a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character."
It is now sixty years later and his message has become distorted with proponents of CRT (Critical Race Theory). Dr. King would surely have seen CRT as destructive as it lumped people into groups based on skin color or ethnicity. MLK was a Christian and believed that we were all children of God and in the image of God. CRT divided and shamed people which would not work toward his goal of bringing people together and to work together for equality.
There have been many blemishes in our history. We can use history to learn from our mistakes but not to shame people. For there to be true equality, we need to unite people to work together for peace and equal rights for all. We need to teach the principles of MLK and not the principles of CRT.