Martin Luther King Jr.’s appeal for racial healing gains renewed force today

Eight years ago on this national holiday honoring the civil-rights ideals and teachings of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., unbridled optimism swept through much of America.

After all, later that same week in January 2009, the first African-American would be inaugurated as the 44th president of the United States, a stunning accomplishment in the annals of race relations in this country that likely would have amazed even Dr. King himself.

Eight years later, the nation marks what would have been King’s 88th birthday in a starkly different mood. Gone is that optimism that the administration of Barack Obama would somehow produce a “post-racial” color-blind nation.

Although many of this nation’s 42 million black Americans indeed have enjoyed substantial socioeconomic gains, the Obama years failed to achieve the overly idealistic aims of unparalleled racial harmony.

The proof is in the many discouraging and distressing headlines over those years dealing with police shootings involving blacks, the louder voice of white supremacist organizations and ongoing above-average poverty, unemployment and educational handicaps among African-Americans.

Racial tensions in fact rose to new heights during the bitterly contentious and divisive presidential campaign of 2016. Those tensions boiled over into this MLK Day weekend in demeaning personal attacks by President-elect Donald Trump toward U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a contemporary of Dr. King’s and a leading foot soldier in the civil-rights trenches. The ad hominem attacks grew out of Lewis’ comments challenging the legitimacy of Trump’s presidency.

In sum, the changing of the guard this Friday outside the U.S. Capitol amid renewed turmoil in race relations makes this year’s observance of MLK Day particularly poignant.

Toward healing the wounds and bridging the widening divides, Americans of all ilks must muster up the will to study and then heed the inspirational teachings of the Baptist minister who rose to national prominence during the seminal civil-rights victory in the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott of 1956.

Prime among those teachings were calls for peace and tolerance toward all steeped in King’s signature style of masterful metaphor.

“I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality. ... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word,” King once implored.

KASICH’S COMMITMENT

Today’s federal and state holiday provides opportunities for millions of Americans to rededicate themselves to those beliefs.

True to that goal, we’re pleased to see Ohio Gov. John Kasich planning to appear with Dr. Bernice King, daughter of the civil-rights leader slain in 1968, in a ceremony today at The King Center in Atlanta. Kasich and King are expected to focus on how Americans can come together to strengthen communities and bridge the expanding racial divide.

King’s creed also focused heavily on not only encouraging respect and fair treatment for all; he also called on all Americans of good will to put those ideals into action to assist the most vulnerable, the most isolated and the most downtrodden among us. In so doing, we could build what King called “beloved communities” across the U.S.

That appeal inspired the National Day of Service, which is part of the MLK Day observance. In many parts of the country, organized activities accompany this day of service. Valley residents do not need an organized event to make a positive difference in our community. Give a ride to a shut-in. Provide a random act of kindness to a neighbor. Volunteer time and service to a helping organization. The possibilities are endless.

On this holiday dedicated to civil rights and equality for all and on this eve of an expected dramatic change in American leadership and social policies, it is incumbent upon all to recommit to the enduring call to action and attitude adjustment so eloquently enunciated by King at his 1963 March on Washington.

In so doing, his still evolving “Dream” for a totally egalitarian America will never be allowed to fade from our collective consciousness.