1  | 

I found this helpful Thank You! Your vote will be tallied soon!

Thirty-nine years ago today, Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee and my city, Washington, D.C., erupted in flames.

I heard the news on the radio the next morning. We were sent home from school early that day because of fear that the riots would spread from the inner city to the suburbs. I remember feeling scared about the riots; I remember my shock that anyone could kill this man in cold blood; I remember grieving over the loss of this great leader.

I looked up Dr. King's "I Have A Dream" speech and read it once again. Even though it is highly topical, the speech remains a powerful epistle, a call to action for all Americans to demand justice for all.

As parents, we owe it to our children to continue the work that Dr. King started. Let's remember what he said:

"And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able 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!"

Thank you, Dr. King.