As our nation pauses to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with the dedication of a new memorial on the anniversary of the historic 1963 March on Washington, most will focus on only part of the story.
When many Americans think of the historic March, they think of Dr. King standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial delivering his inspiring “I Have a Dream” words he spontaneously added at the very end of his speech. But too few people remember that the March on Washington wasn’t focused just on racial equality but was actually named the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and was a demand for economic opportunity and economic justice for all.
Dr. King said we had come to the nation’s capital that August day to cash a check America had written nearly 200 years earlier. He reminded us that when our nation’s founders wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, they had created a promissory note that guaranteed all Americans the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But instead of honoring that promise for black Americans, America had defaulted on it and given us a bad check that had come back marked “insufficient funds.”
Dr. King said those of us who had come to the 1963 March on Washington – over 200,000 strong – were there to cash our checks because we refused to believe “the bank of justice is bankrupt” or that “there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.”
It is a message with special resonance this year and month as our nation’s leaders are locked in bitter debates about our nation’s insufficient funds, whether or not to default on our country’s debts, whether rich and powerful individuals and corporations whose bank accounts are overflowing from the tax breaks and subsidies which drove up huge debts will be asked to contribute their fair share, and whether millions of hungry, homeless, poor and poorly educated American children and families will be asked to sacrifice more and continue to receive bounced checks from the bank of economic opportunity and justice.
Our children need to see their parents going to work and holding a job. Our children need the economic and emotional security employed parents provide. Our children need to know that if they work hard and get a good education there will be a good job in their future.
When Dr. King died calling for a Poor People’s Campaign, there were 11 million poor children in America. Today, with 15.5 million poor children, millions living in extreme poverty, I’ve no doubt he’d be calling for a new Poor People’s Campaign with a sense of urgency. He’s not coming back. It’s up to us to pick up the mantle of justice.
Marian Wright Edelman is president of the Children’s Defense Fund.