August 28th marked the 50th anniversary of the famous March on Washington, during which Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his historic “I have a dream” speech. Rightfully, there has been considerable attention given to this transcendent moment in Civil Rights history, and it seems important to reflect a bit on this remarkable speech.
In re-reading the transcript, it is interesting to see how intertwined Dr. King saw economic opportunity and societal freedom and equality. Indeed, early on, Dr. King provides a powerful image of this connection by stating that the marchers were coming to cash a check written by the founders of the U.S. that promised that “all men –yes, black men as well as white men-would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
It is interesting to reflect on that moment and wonder what it means to guarantee equal opportunity to all citizens. Certainly, we can agree that it means the elimination of any government sanctioned impediments to equality. This means that government sanctioned segregation or inequality cannot stand — so separate but equal cannot be acceptable, nor can providing government support in the form of subsidies, grant funding, or (more controversially) tax breaks. But is it sufficient to simply remove prior barriers to equality? Or should we as a society work harder, even on a daily basis, to identify and reduce/eliminate these barriers to equality?
What does it mean, when 50 years after this historic march and speech, that African American economic well-being continues to lag so far behind that of European Americans? The legacies of slavery, racism, and discrimination run deep, and it will take multiple generations to overcome them, if we acknowledge that they indeed exist. As a concrete example, consider how wealth is transmitted from generation to generation, and then ponder how long it would take one family to “catch up” to another family when they become homeowners in a later generation, when they have a diminished family network that can offer support, and when their educational system is second-rate. Now add the complications of ongoing racialized deficiencies in the educational, legal, and healthcare systems… The U.S. has come a long way, for sure. We have a long way to go.