This past Sunday, I quoted from a 1957 speech of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., now titled “Give Us the Ballot.” I have been sitting with that particular speech for some weeks now for a variety of reasons, one of which is just how disappointed Dr. King would be to see his hopes unfulfilled. And given the proclamation this week of the new president that he “will make his dream come true,” it may be worth the reality check of seeing just how far we are from that reality, regardless of the inhabitant of the White House. While there have been increased efforts by those who would thwart the democratic election process by undermining and inhibiting the voting process, it is undeniable that many more — including many more black and brown citizens — have “the ballot” than in King’s day. And yet the issues he raises are far from resolved.
King says: “Give us the ballot and we will no longer have to worry the federal government about our basic rights.” Yet basic rights are far from universal, with those most powerless most persecuted.
King says “Give us the ballot and we will no longer plead to the federal government for passage of an antilynching law.” The passage of such a law took 68 years after Brown vs. Board of Education, with the Emmett Till Antilynching Act (2022), a duration seemingly purposely intended to avoid bringing to justice those King called “the hooded perpetrators of violence.”
King says “Give us the ballot and we will fill our legislative halls with men of good will… and we will place judges on the benches of the South who will ‘do justice and love mercy,’ and we will place at the head of the southern states governors who have felt not only the tang of the human, but the glow of the divine.”
This is part of King’s dream too, though it is given voice four years earlier than that more famous speech. And for us today — 68 years after this speech and as politicians seek to usurp King’s legacy to pursue the opposite of King’s dream — our own inner and outer struggles may benefit from other guidance King offered herein. He says:
“We must realize that we are grappling with such a complex problem there is no place for misguided emotionalism. We must work passionately and unrelentingly for the goal of freedom, but we must be sure that our hands are clean in the struggle. We must never struggle with falsehood, hate, or malice. Let us never become bitter.”
I confess that as the news has covered the outpouring of executive orders this week, it has been difficult to not become hardened or numb… to “become bitter.” I am grateful for Dr. King’s wisdom that pulls me back to center and sets me on the path of justice and peace, where God is at work.
Pastor Michael