Remembering How to Dream
by Clarence E. Wright
On August 28, 1963 at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered what would become his most famous speech. The speech would come to be known by the closing refrain, “I have a dream,” so powerfully delivered by King. That dream became a rally cry and road map; it galvanized the movement and came to resonate with the American public at large. The vision presented in the dream even acted as a blueprint for the policy changes and legislation that marked the years following the March. Sadly, 55 years later, while there has been some progress, the ultimate goals of justice and equality have still not been realized. Thus, it is imperative in these challenging times that we remember the dream and have the courage to dream again.
In the preamble to the speech, King references the statue of Abraham Lincoln, the looming figure in whose shadow King delivered the speech. Lincoln’s presidency marked a turning point in the lives of black Americans, but the Lincoln Memorial was also a visual reminder of our nation’s precarious history of racial tension. King offered an update on the progress made in the century between the emancipation proclamation and the moment he delivered the speech. With a litany built around the refrain “100 years later,”1 King successively juxtaposed metaphors illustrating the challenges still present in 1963. In the most direct of these statements, he explicitly declared, “100 years later, the negro still is not free.” We have gone from negro to black to African American, but still, 155 years after the emancipation proclamation and 55 years after King’s “I have a dream” speech, we are not truly free.
King recognized that freedom from slavery was insufficient because Jim Crow and segregation continued to hold black Americans in bondage; this recognition fueled King’s dream of an integrated society as the next step in freedom. Since then, we have seen the end of segregation, the dismantling of Jim Crow, we have even seen a black man rise to the office of President of the United States—yet our society is still marked by the systemic marginalization of people of color. Just as the end of slavery was not enough, neither was the end of segregation. King commemorated the moment of emancipation while wrestling with its inadequacy, and we must now do the same with the dream he voiced on that day.
While King makes cursory reference to “the slums and ghettos of our northern cities,” the speech is primarily directed at the culture of Jim Crow and segregation in southern states. The speech is loaded with descriptive references to “the red hills of Georgia,” “Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice” and “Alabama with its vicious racists”. King’s speech was remarkably focused on achieving its immediate goal, the end of Jim Crow segregation, but there were always other issues. Since the end of Jim Crow, those other issues have risen to the forefront, and some have been magnified exponentially.
There has been a resurgence of blatant and public racism in our currently volatile political climate. Events like the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia produced images reminiscent of those from the early Jim Crow days through the turbulent 1960’s. Even during the Obama presidency, there was civil unrest in response to repeated instances of police brutality, the same police brutality that King spoke of in the “I have a dream” speech. I want to believe that this regression in race relations and resurgence in blatant white supremacy are just the last gasps of a dying world view, but the evidence is to the contrary. Over and over America proves that this really is who we are, that hatred and racism are embedded in the DNA of our nation. The Black Lives Matter movement is a way to remember King’s dream, and the return of brazen white supremacy reminds us of the necessity to continue dreaming.
But remembering King’s dream is not enough. The times we now live in require us to dream again. Activism is alive and well today, social media has galvanized many movements and revolutions, but the field of causes is crowded, and many movements do not withstand the rapid news cycle. To have lasting success, activism must embrace organization, and must be focused on a dream, a vision, a common end goal spelled out with photographic accuracy, as Dr. King did in 1963. While it is tempting to respond to the latest outrage by taking to the streets or social media, what we really need is a long view and a sustainable strategy. What we need is a new dream. Dreams come during sleep; sleep is a time of restoration and self-care. At times it seems that in our quest to “stay woke,” we have lost the capacity to dream.
The new dream must be bigger than black and white—it must seek the uplift of all marginalized people. The new dream must address contemporary issues such as mass incarceration, class, gender, sex, sexuality, and how they intersect with each other. The new dream cannot emanate from a new Martin Luther King, Jr. but must include the collective voices of all who suffer. The new dream must include the voices of immigrants and those ironically called “dreamers”. As we dream again, we must hear the voice of the refugee, of those injured by the false promise of the American dream. Before his life was taken, King himself had a new dream, a vision of economic empowerment for poor people of all races. Sadly, 50 years after King was assassinated, and 55 years after he spoke of “a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity,” the lingering effects of poverty remain. And while in some areas conditions have improved, in others they have greatly deteriorated.
It is certainly not without precedent for things to get worse before a dream is ultimately fulfilled. Like Martin Luther King, Jr., Jacob’s son Joseph was a dreamer. Joseph’s first dream, in Genesis 37:7, envisioned sheaves in a field (representing his brothers) bowing down to a single sheave (representing Joseph). Verse 9 tells of his second dream, where the sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowed down to him. His dreams incited his brothers’ hatred, but their hatred started the process that led to the dreams’ fulfillment. Dreaming is the easy part, dreaming is the restorative part, dreaming is what centers and grounds—but after the dream is the struggle. Joseph was wrongly imprisoned; so was King. Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers; King was abandoned by his own people. Joseph was labeled arrogant and spoiled; King was labeled out of touch and ineffective. The world can be very unkind to those who dream.
Ultimately Joseph found his way back to his own dreams by interpreting the dreams of others. In Genesis 40, while imprisoned alongside the Pharaoh’s cup bearer and baker, Joseph interpreted their dreams. He predicted both the cup bearer’s imminent freedom and the baker’s death by hanging. Joseph himself was caught between the two: he wasn’t yet free, but he was still alive (and as long as we are still alive, there is still hope for freedom!) Finally, in chapter 41, Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dream and it, too, came to pass. Joseph had to watch everyone else’s dream come true before he could see the fulfillment of his own.
Even after obtaining a favorable position under the Pharaoh, Joseph had to work to make his dream materialize. Chapter 41 records him gathering food and managing a complex nationwide storage system for seven years before his brothers finally bowed before him in Chapter 42. All of his hardships prepared the way for the dream to come to pass. Whether we witness the plight of marginalized people become better or worse in our lifetime, we must always remember to dream and to work. In the words of the Apostle Paul “Let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up” (Gal. 6:9).
The jury is still out on the fulfillment of King’s dream but, surely, he died in its pursuit and laid the groundwork for this generation to dream again. Perhaps we will be the ones to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last, Free at last, thank God almighty, we are free at last.” Or better yet, maybe our dreams will lead us to sing a new song.
Notes
1. All speech quotes and references from “I Have a Dream” Speech by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Delivered August 28th, 1963 at the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
