A Message from the National Congress of Negro Women on MLK Day

If Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was with us today, what would he say about the state of our nation? I believe he would be disappointed that so much of what he prayed for and marched for and went to jail for during the Civil Rights movement has yet to become a reality. But he would surely urge us not to give up and not to give in. As he once said: “We must accept finite disappointment but never lose infinite hope”

If Dr. King was with us today, what would he charge us to do to hasten the day when there would be far more peace in the world? He might urge us to stay in the struggle for justice, for as he once said:” True peace is not merely the absence of tension.” And Dr. King would surely call on us to keep the faith, and to never stray from the practice of non-violence.

If Dr. King was still with us, what would he say about the past four years in our country? I can imagine Dr. King calling on us to understand the connections between how our nation was founded 401 years ago and the ongoing presence of systemic racism. He might well remind us that the use of white supremacist flags and language in Charlottesville in 2017 were versions of what Black and Jewish people have been subjected to throughout American history. And were he still with us, Dr. King would surely continue to speak up and speak out about the brutal police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and so many Black people in 2020.

If he was still with us, what would be Dr. King’s response to how a mob of President Trump’s supporters stormed the United States Capitol, as some of them displayed the symbols of white supremacy, ransacked offices in a riot that left five people dead, including a Capitol police officer? I believe Dr. King would not have hesitated to unequivocally condemn this act of domestic terrorism. It is important to remember that domestic terrorism took place throughout the decades following the Civil War, during the civil rights movement and Dr. that King lost his life because of domestic terrorism.

If Dr. King was still with us, he would surely remind us that economic, political, and social progress do not automatically come with the passage of time. And he might repeat what he said on an occasion when he was asked how change would come about. He said we must educate, we must legislate, and when it’s necessary we must agitate.

If Dr. King was still among us, what would he say to people who contend that racism is not only alive in America, it will never be put to rest. I believe he would urge us to join him in dreaming of the day when we would be free at last. And he would remind us of words he spoke in 1967 when he gave to the Hungry Club at the Butler Street Y in Atlanta. Dr. King said, to defeat racism “…we will have to keep the pressure alive. We’ve never made any gain in civil rights without constant, persistent, legal and non-violent pressure. Don’t let anybody make you feel that the problem will work itself out.” While our dreams may not materialize in our lifetime, we must do all that we can to make our dreams come true for future generations.

If Dr. King was still with us, I believe he would call on us to continue to build what he called The Beloved Community. The King Center explains that “Dr. King’s Beloved Community is a global vision in which all people can share in the wealth of the earth. In the Beloved Community, poverty, hunger, and homelessness will not be tolerated because international standards of human decency will not allow it. Racism and all forms of discrimination, bigotry and in prejudice will be replaced by an all-inclusive spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood.”

Today, as we pay tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, let us, the over 2 million women who are members of NCNW, pay tribute as well to Coretta Scott King. While she was known as the wife of Dr. King and the mother of their four children, she was in her own right a staunch champion for civil rights and women’s rights.

In the years after Dr. King’s assassination, Coretta Scott King continued to be an activist for racial and gender equality, she founded the King Center in Atlanta and succeeded in making Dr. King’s birthday a national holiday. She went on to be an advocate for LGBT rights, and she stood in opposition to apartheid in South Africa.

If Coretta Scott King was still with us, what might she say to each and every member of the National Council of Negro Women? I believe we are included when she said: “Women, if the soul of the nation is to be saved, I believe that you must become its soul.”

Dr. King was taken away from us in the 39th year of his life. Coretta Scott King went to Glory in 2006. And we have recently lost a number of the great heroes and sheroes of the Civil Rights movement. I believe we must be the leaders our nation and our world need. In the words of Alice Walker, “We are the ones we have been waiting for.”

Onward!
Johnnetta Betsch Cole, Ph.D.
National Chair & President, NCNW

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