‘I Have a Dream’

Do you think it will have any sort of lasting impact on race relations in this country?
Yes. I believe it will be remembered as a benchmark and watershed moment. People will continue to refer to the speech, to its meaning. It will be an American document of significance than can and will help us.

What was your reaction to Sen. Hillary Clinton's comments in January that King needed Lyndon Johnson to get his civil rights work completed?
I think she was trying to counter the eloquent proclamations of Obama, who celebrated King as a gifted leader able to inspire. She was trying to tell us that it takes more than eloquence and great speaking, that a president must use the office as a bully pulpit to argue his or her case for black people. There's no denying that the Voting Rights Act, and before that the Civil Rights Act, would not have become law unless Johnson championed those pieces of legislation in Congress. But Dr. King created the conditions under which Johnson might act. King forced Johnson to act. They worked together. They forged connections and built coalitions.

Do you remember the day King was shot?
Yes. I was eight years old. My parents were very aware of him, but I hadn't yet heard of him. I was watching television with my father, and the TV news interrupted to announce that Martin Luther King Jr. had been shot. I was riveted by the report and was instantly converted and decided, beyond my conscious mind, to have a lifelong association with this man. He's the greatest American who ever lived, greater than Lincoln or Jefferson. They held official office, but King was a private citizen who became a spokesman for a group of American people who had been neglected and marginalized, and he leveraged that moral authority to make real change in this country.

What are you hearing from people across the country this week as you discuss your new book and King's legacy?
Some people can't believe it's been 40 years. Some wonder whether we are nearer to the Promised Land or stuck in a racial wilderness? Many people think we are far along the path of reconciliation and justice, while others believe we have a long, long way to go. This anniversary of Dr. King's death is a reminder of the nightmare aspect of the American dream, and it calls attention again to the vulnerable, the locked out.

What are some of the ways in which King's death changed America?
He gave us a language to express our aspirations. He reimagined a new America of black and white and brown and red, together. His death radically altered white America's perception of his life and convinced many to make a real commitment to racial justice. There would be no Barack Obama without King. There would be no Kenneth Chenault [CEO of American Express] without King. There would be no Michael Eric Dyson without King. The fact that I went to Princeton and got a Ph.D. and have taught at such wonderful universities as Georgetown, none of that would have happened without Martin Luther King Jr.

© 2008