King's legacy more than monuments

Fifty years ago today, the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was the scene for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The struggle for civil rights, and discourse over what that means, continues to this day.

In a happy development, the conflict is now not whether the goal should be pursued, but by what means this can be a nation in which we can "make justice a reality for all of God's children."

The 1963 rally for civil rights saw 250,000 Americans converge in the nation's capital to hear Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders calling with a single voice for a nation without racism, want and inequality.

The moment with the most historical resonance was the address by Dr. King, known as the "I Have A Dream" speech, in which he invoked the spirit of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation to call for moving "from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice."

The ideas of Dr. King seemed so radical in the early 1960s that the FBI and other law enforcement agencies tracked and developed impressive portfolios on his activities. The agonizing struggles of the civil rights movement, however, yielded a remarkable consensus.

Just a generation ago, prominent elected officials actively opposed racial integration. Prominent Democratic senators led a filibuster against the Civil Rights Act (1964) and the Voting Rights Act (1965), unsuccessfully fighting these reaffirmations of the 14th and 15th Amendments. While there remain differences over implementation of this key legislation, the "I Have A Dream" speech is now quoted by politicians from every party and region.

Even more remarkably, Dr. King's comments are now used as arguments for and against almost every piece of major legislation proposed, whether by Democrats or Republicans. With these rising citations also have come practical results, if not as great as could be hoped.

Significant economic and social achievements accompanied the second emancipation of the 1960s, as the era of official segregation shuddered to a welcome end by the early 1970s. While poverty levels among African-Americans remain high, they are significantly lower than when King delivered his speech.

Even more remarkable has been the emergence of a substantial African American middle class for the first time in U.S. history.

The Obama presidency illustrates the extent to which the United States has transformed. Critics of Barack Obama often compare him to two white Southern Baptists -- Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton -- revealing a great deal about how our political culture has moved.

When there seems more distance between prominent black conservatives, such as Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, than between Barack Obama and former Democratic governors of Georgia and Arkansas, that signals a chasm between this generation and those previous.

Dr. King's legacy, however, did not only make a permanent imprint on the United States. Less known in this country was his international significance. In Sept. 1964, the civil rights leader visited divided Germany, delivering sermons in East Germany. His message of brotherhood, the dignity of all humanity, the universal struggle for civil rights, and the indispensability of the Christian faith was unwelcome to the Communist rulers of that occupied nation.

His explicit denunciation of the "walls of hostility," a clear reference to the Berlin Wall, echoed just as loudly. Even Dr. King's name, coming from the leading German Reformer, Martin Luther, gave him a special connection to the Germans, a reference he used in his comments to encourage standing against injustice.

It should have been no surprise that almost 25 years later in 1989, it was Protestant churches in East Germany that sparked the nonviolent uprising that ended that brutal Communist regime.

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Martin Luther King, Jr., in 1964, was a testament to his international significance. While it predated the legislative victories in Washington, D.C., that would cement his impact, it was a signal that Dr. King, like Mohandas Gandhi, was a leader not just for the United States, but for the world.

Unlike the physical reminders of Dr. King's time on this earth, from streets to monuments, we should make every effort to keep his intellectual, spiritual and political legacy alive and adapt it to our circumstances.

Conflicting claims over the ownership of King's legacy, including assertions by both political parties that he was one of their own, should be welcome. After all, what better tribute to Dr. King than a nonviolent competition to see who can embrace his vision with the most enthusiasm?

Wayne Bowen, a U.S. Army veteran, received his Ph.D. in history from Northwestern University. He resides in Cape Girardeau.