When I think about what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day means to me and my
family, I think about my great-grandma, Maebel James.

She was born in the segregated South in 1896, just 33 years after the
Emancipation Proclamation. She lost her husband to racist violence. When
the perpetrators of that crime threatened the lives of her children, she
uprooted her family and fled the South to seek refuge here in Maryland.

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Her life was not an easy one. Still, Maebel was never bitter, always there
to be the anchor of her family, the living embodiment of empathy,
resilience, and dignity.

Maebel witnessed our country change and transform — sometimes for the
better, other times not — and she faced it all with grace, empathy, and
love.

Especially now, it’s worth remembering that the path to civil rights
wasn’t easy or straightforward.

While we’ve made tremendous progress in the past half century, our fight
for justice continues. Healthcare and housing inequality, criminal
injustice, and bigotry persist. 

We haven’t yet achieved the dream of equality and love that Dr. King so
eloquently described at the Lincoln Memorial, 100 years after the
Emancipation Proclamation.

But we shouldn’t forget that Dr. King never stopped believing in the
promise of America. He believed, as did my great-grandmother, that in
spite of our flaws, that we are a nation determined to be better tomorrow
than we were yesterday. 

They were right. My family’s story is proof of that — from the segregated
Deep South to the United States Senate. 

So we march on, Folks, even when the path is steep and
uncertain. 

As my great-grandmother always told me, "Go farther and do better."

Together,
Angela Alsobrooks

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