“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.” Martin Luther King spoke these words in 1963, and they still resonate today. Affirmative action programs were established to create this very type of equality, but have they brought us closer to Dr. King’s dream or hindered it?
The only way to overturn the current (and any future) bans on affirmative action and to keep our nation on the path to racial progress is to build the new civil rights movement with a strong organization and an integrated youth leadership. Maintaining two of Dr. Martin Luther King’s overarching political principles is the key to victory. First, while working with all those who are prepared to act, it is essential that the movement maintain its political independence from political parties and elected officials. Politicians have agendas and priorities which often conflict with a winning strategy. Secondly, to build the kind of broad, powerful movement needed to restore and expand the gains of the old civil rights movement, we must build our organization on an integrated basis – black, Latina/o, Arab, Asian, Native American and white – fighting together to expand the whole pie, rather than competing against each other for a few crumbs.
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