Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr. - 40 Years Later

Martin Luther King, Jr. dreamed of a world of equality for all. Looking back, forty years after his assassination, it is wonder how different the world is today - yet, in so many ways, still the same.

People wonder how the issue of segregation, which King so virtuously fought against, could even be considered controversial. We understand that racism then was far more prevalent, and far less subtle, than it is today. But, even so, how could people not see that the practice was so obviously wrong?

The answer might prove shocking. Simply put, most people never really thought about it.

How could an issue so big as that one go unnoticed by so many people for so long?

The answer to that can be seen right under every one of our noses. In a very real way, segregation still exists, utterly unchallenged, today, in a strikingly similar form. It isn't a practice of racial discrimination that our society has become oblivious to, but a sexual one. It is the elephant caving in the roof, and very few of us even know it's there.

There is a nearly universal segregation in our country that runs along gender lines. Everywhere we go, there are "separate but equal" facilities for men and women, running the gamut from bathrooms to locker rooms to those little closets in department stores where you get to try on clothes. Even many schools, to this day, are for men only or women only.

Now, racial segregation was a much more vicious beast, and no one should get the idea that it was no big deal, like "merely" having to use a toilette with a certain kind of symbol on it. But, by looking at today's gender-based segregation, we can get something of a sense for what the people four decades ago were thinking - or, rather, weren't thinking - about racial segregation.

How often does the fact that men and women have separate facilities cross your mind? It was much the same with black and white facilities back then. It simply was the way things were, and not many people paid it any mind at all.

What reasons, really, do we have for having separate bathrooms? Are we so childish that we don't want to catch cooties from a toilette seat that a member of the opposite sex might have sat on?

What justifications as do come to mind don't hold up when really thought through. We have separate locker rooms because of modesty; we don't want people leering at our unclothed behinds. But, what about homosexuals? Or bi-sexuals, trans-sexuals, and others?

These groups may make up only a minority of the population, but there are a far larger percentage of homosexuals in today's world than there were blacks in 1968.

What Dr. King did that made him a legend was more than charisma and charm. He made people think about things that they didn't want to think about. He made others see the light, and consider ideas in a new way that many had never even thought of before.

Is there any rational, valid reason to keep men and women segregated in today's age of "equality"? No. But we do it because we don't want to question the status quo. We do it because that's the way it's always been, and we never even think of doing it another way. We never even consider what this kind of division means for our society, or, if we do, we don't want to stir up a controversy - especially since nobody really seems to care.

So too was it in 1968. Dr. King joined with other black leaders, and stood up to the apathy of society. He understood that the majority weren't trying to 'keep the black man down', that black and white Americans were AMERICANS, first and foremost.

Though there were those who hated him for what he said and did, for questioning their authority, their "wisdom", and their infallibility, Dr. King knew that those few bigots were the exception in a larger society that really did believe that "All men were created equal."

Sharing bathrooms, schoolrooms, or board rooms doesn't really matter in the larger scope of things. But the symbolism of it, the enforced separation of two peoples, represented the subjugation and oppression of an entire race.

Martin Luther King was dedicated to doing what he believed was truly right, not just for the black race, but for all Americans. As Abraham Lincoln himself once said, "A house divided cannot stand."

Dr. King saw what few others did. And he did something about it. And he died for it.

It is not for his accomplishments towards racial equality, nor for his accomplishments towards social equality, or even his Dream that all Americans could one day see each other as they truly are, as brothers and sisters, that we honor him by celebrating his birthday. It for all these things and more, but, most of all, because he was a brave man who took action on behalf of good, and right, and justice.

We do not remember him today because he was a Black leader, or because he was a famous Black man. We honor his memory because he was a hero - to all Americans, and the kind of person we all should like to be.