Fulfilling Dr. King's Dream & Work to be Done

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Fulfilling Dr. King's Dream & Work to be Done


What an overwhelming evening. I was flooded with emotion on the election, by a resounding majority, of our first African-American President. I pray that God will give him the wisdom to make the best decisions to lead us and that we, as a people, will assist him in the accomplishment of God's wishes for us.

Many of you know that I am a civil rights attorney. It is a cause which is near and dear to my heart and one to which I have given many hours of my life.

Today, of all days, is a time to reflect on our journey as a civil rights movement, and as a nation to reflect on the work yet to be done, and the thoughts and inspiration of our most notable civil rights leader:


"So I say to you, my friends, that even though we must face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed - we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

"I have a dream my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."

"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."

"And when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and hamlet, from every state and city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of god's children - black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Catholics and Protestants - will be able to join hands and to sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last, free at last; thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Excerpts from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, Washington, D.C., August 28, 1963


"I know you are asking today, "How long will it take?" I come to say to you this afternoon however difficult the moment, however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, because truth pressed to earth will rise again.
How Long? Not long, because no lie can live forever.
How long? Not long, because you still reap what you sow.
How long? Not long. Because the arm of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice."

Excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Our God Is Marching On" speech, Montgomery, Alabama (at conclusion of the March from Selma), March 25, 1963


"This is hope for the future, and with this faith we will be able to sing in some not too distant tomorrow with a cosmic past tense, "We have overcome, we have overcome, deep in my heart, I did believe we would overcome."

Excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Where Do We Go From Here?" final speech to SCLC.


And finally, may all of us and our friends in the search for justice remember:


"We can't ever give up. We must work passionately and unrelentingly for first-class citizenship. We must never let up in our determination to remove every vestige of segregation and discrimination from our nation, but we shall not in the process relinquish our privilege to love."

Excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "A Christmas Sermon on Peace" speech, Ebenezer Baptist Church, December 24, 1967


This is truly a Historic Day ... but not the end of our struggle. It is the beginning of an opportunity to heal our nation and end division among races and all political factions to work towards peace and the common good.

May God Bless America in our efforts to overcome this struggle!

Peace,
Beth Isbell
November 5, 2008