A Day to Remember

Among the remembrances of the April 4, 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. was an event at Riverside Church in New York City this Wednesday evening featuring the transformational lessons of King?'s last year for the American polity for today.

Always an inherent part of King?'s message — but more explicitly so beginning with his sermon at Riverside Church on April 4, 1967 until his death in Memphis a year later to the day — was a recognition that the issues of economic, social, political, and racial injustice were ?of a piece all related. The cost of armed conflict any where in the world, in lives, dollars, and moral and spiritual integrity are also felt by every citizen of this country, every day. And one way that every American, 18 years old or older, could respond to such issues, King argued, was to investigate and understand them, and then vote.

Panelist Dorothy Cotton, a legacy member of FOR, a core member of the civil rights movement, SCLC Secretary to the Voter Education Project, and a vibrant voice for action today, was Dr. King?'s drum major for the memory of a joyful, compassionate, visionary leader in the gathering the other night. She was joined on the panel by Dr. Vincent Harding and Dr. Clayborne Carson. Together they made the case that, if we are going to perfect this bold and still young experiment in democracy, then we ought to organize to ensure that all citizens vote in the coming election. If we did nothing else over the next nine months, this would be SOMETHING IMPORTANT to do.

Dorothy Cotton, in particular, offered an uplifting spirit in which to remember Martin Luther King, Jr. as a beacon of possibilities for which we are each responsible, rather than an icon to be bowed to and then abandoned until another sobering anniversary date.