February 01, 2000

Dr. King's Agenda for the New Millennium

We recognize Martin Luther King, Jr.'s seventy-first birthday this month. King was blessed with a brilliant mind and with the gift of some great teachers. He was grounded in the music and the preached theology of the black church traditions. As a graduate student at Crozer Theological Seminary and Boston University, and through a trip to India, he informed himself with the knowledge and disciplines of Mahatma Gandhi's methods of nonviolent protest for social justice. King frequently placed the American struggle for civil and human rights in the context of global awareness and concerns. In his mind and faith, the nonviolent fight for justice and full participation for all Americans could not be separated from the larger struggle on every continent toward liberation for "all God's people."

On the night before he died in Memphis, Dr. King made these prescient, faith-filled remarks:

Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now. Because I've been to the mountaintop. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land. And I'm happy, tonight. I'm not worried about anything. I am not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.

Imagine with me that Dr. King had lived across the decades of the seventies, eighties, and nineties and that his mind, heart, and voice are looking with us now at this new millennium's world. What agenda might this elder "drum-major for justice" set for the twenty-first century? Here's the way I imagine the topics for his outline:

  • Bring the force of nonviolent commitment and strategies of conflict resolution to bear on racial and ethnic divisions and blood-letting on each of our continents.
  • Support families in caring for their children and give highest priority to making quality education available to every child and youth.
  • Make triumphant capitalism accountable for the real costs involved in our use of natural resources, our commoditization of virtually all dimensions of human exchange, and for the growing disparities - on every continent - between the rich and the growing numbers of poor peoples.
  • Lead in creating the economic security and public health support that can make lowering the birth rates of burgeoning populations acceptable.
  • Intensify our efforts on every continent toward conservation and protection of rivers, streams, forests, eroding topsoil, and the air we breathe.

I can imagine Dr. King closing the elaboration of his agenda with the words of the prophet Amos, "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an everflowing stream." Is there a calling for us and for this University in Dr. King's agenda?

[ Posted by James Fowler at February 1, 2000 01:53 PM | More Opinion articles ]

© 2000-2000 by the Center for Ethics, Emory University. Some rights reserved.