Monroe Dispatch - No Struggle, No Progress

I believe in giving honor to whom honor is due. For this past Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. week in our country, and every day, I salute him! I honor him with his own words. After hearing many of his speeches and various quotes, I noticed the main themes throughout his work are service, love, knowing your worth, freedom, equality, and victory. A minister of the word of God, chosen by God, who heard the cries of oppressed African-American people suffering from Jim Crow laws in the southern United States, he led the freedom fight against injustice, inequality, and hate. Freedom to be judged by one's character and not by the color of one's skin. Dr. King was a man that spoke against interposition and nullification. He marched in the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott to the Black garbage collectors strike in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was assassinated on April 4, 1968, by a deranged White who tried to silence his voice. Despite the attempts to suppress the movement toward civil rights for African-Americans, his legacy pushed change for many generations. I would be remiss in my salute to Dr. King if I did not acknowledge that there were many courageous White Americans who supported and marched with Dr. King, and some paid the ultimate sacrifice as well. Although Dr. King's physical voice was silenced on that awful night, he spoke of a dream God gave him, which was the battle cry for African-Americans to stay in the struggle for freedom through non-violence and love.

Dr. King wrote:

"Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy to a friend. I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear. Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that."

He knew the weapons of this warfare were not carnal but spiritually ordained by God himself.

Fifty-five years later, Dr. King's dream is still alive and being realized. Civil rights leaders such as the late Congressman John Lewis, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Ambassador and former Mayor Andrew Young, and many others that are too numerous to list them all picked up Dr. King's baton and continued to lead the struggle, making enormous contributions for the cause of civil rights, thus keeping the dream alive.

I am a product and beneficiary of Dr. King's dream. I serve as one of a majority African-American school board members for the Monroe City School Board. Fifty-five years ago, this was not possible because African-Americans under Jim Crow were denied the right to even register to vote. Because of their sacrifices, I was duly elected by the people to the Monroe School Board and have the opportunity to work to improve the quality of education for all the children of the Monroe City Schools. (continued)