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Today is the day we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday. King was known as the leader of the Civil Rights movement in the ‘60s and you could say, he gave his life for his convictions. At the young age of 39, he was gunned down on April 4, 1968 in my hometown of Memphis by James Earl Ray. He had come here to support the African American city sanitation workers who were on strike for higher wages.
It’s also the day that our first African American President is being inaugurated for his second term in office.
But, have things changed? Living in the South, that’s a hard question to answer. Of course, things have changed for the better since the ‘60s. When you go about town, you see people of all races walking together, dining together, shopping together, and working together. There are interracial marriages and interracial children all over the South.
But, some things haven’t changed. Memphis is still a very poor town. Our hunger rate is high and education – at least in my opinion – is poor for the underprivileged. Or, maybe the education offered isn’t poor, but good teachers are just tired of fighting the problems of the poor – no money, no cohesive families that care about them, and no hope for a brighter future.
Forty years ago, Dr. King hoped for a better life for all people of all colors. African Americans were freed from slavery in 1865 and yet today, the incarceration rate for African American males 18 and older is 1 in 36, but for those between the ages of 20-34, the incarceration rate falls to 1 in 9. For Hispanic men, it is 1 in every 36 while for white men, it is 1 in 106. For women, African Americans incarceration statistics are 1 in 100, while it is 1 in 355 for white women.
Poverty statistics aren’t much better either. The 2010 U.S. Census found a little over 15% of Americans living in poverty. That may not sound too bad, but 9.9% are white. All other ethnic groups are higher – 12.1% of all Asians, 26.6% of all Hispanics, and 27.4% of all African Americans live in poverty.
Yes, times have changed since Dr. King participated in potentially harmful sit-ins in the ‘60s, but things still aren’t the best for minorities in America.
Maybe today should be a time to reflect on not how far we have come, but how much further we need to go and what we can do to make that dream continue to come true.