Today is the national holiday that celebrates the birthday of civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Dr. The holiday was officially signed into law in 1983, the year I was born, but it was not officially observed until three years later in 1986, the year my sister was born. It was not until 2000 that all 50 American states observed the holiday. So, it took almost 20 years after being signed into law for every state to observe a holiday that celebrates the life of the most famous civil rights leader to date. I’m focusing on the years because we often like to think that we are so far removed from the Civil Rights Movement and the residue of that movement. We like to think that we have reached Dr. King’s dream because we can go to school with white people. We pretend that we are living in the promised land because there is a Black man in the Oval Office. But, if we’re really honest with ourselves we’ll note that we still have a LONG way to go. 
But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we’ve come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
Dr. King was clearly referring to slavery in this speech, but 51 years later Black Americans are still fighting against segregation. We are still treated differently in our own “land.” The lives we live are often disconnected from our White counterparts. The fears I have raising a Black child in America are quite different from my White mommy friends. The conversations I will have with my son in a few years about respectability politics as a way to prevent police brutality aren’t even on their radars unless they are raising Black and Brown boys as well.
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
51 years later we are still trying to believe in the justice system. Many of us are participating in the justice system as lawyers and judges trying to change it. Yet the security of justice does not extend to the Black American as often as it should. When our children are shot in the street, we have to hold mass protests and appeal to the president of the United States for arrests to take place. We have to watch and listen as the victim is put on trial and the defendant is freed. I’m still waiting on the government to cash that check that gives us “the riches of freedom and the security of justice.”
There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality.
51 years later we are still dealing with variations of the “when will you be satisfied?” question. Now it’s more of a statement. People remind us that we have a Black president, so racism and discrimination can not possibly still exist. They tell us if we just cooperated with the police we wouldn’t die, but fail to see the White people who resist arrest and are still apprehended. They tell us that “police lives matter,” so if they’re afraid they can and should kill. They ignore the fact that mass murders who lack melanin are safely apprehended ALIVE!
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
51 years later I am still dreaming of the day when my son will not be judged by the color of his skin, but the content of his character. I am still dreaming of the day when him wearing a hoodie makes him a teenager and not a suspicious character. So, no we have not reached the promised land and no we are not living Dr. King’s dream. We are still waiting on the justice system to cash that check. We are still fighting to be treated as HUMAN BEINGS!
