Our democracy is as fragile as it has ever been, at least since the Civil War. But today, may we draw our hope and our courage not only from Martin Luther King’s extraordinary life and legacy – but from the knowledge that he did not stand alone.
In 2020, I had the honor of joining John Lewis in Selma to pay tribute to the men and women who marched across the Edmund Pettus Bridge on “Bloody Sunday.” I spent some time with Chuck Neblett, one of the Freedom Singers, and asked him what it was about Dr. King that made him so powerful.
He said, “Emmet Till.”
Because it was Mamie Till’s decision to share the pictures of her son’s brutalized body that galvanized a whole country to stand up. Chuck had tremendous respect for Dr.King – but it was the movement that came first.
Voices like Dr. King’s have defined what it means to be an American. Because at every moment in our history when a would-be demagogue started to rise, voices of love and inclusion rose faster to inspire us, to give us a vision of the world they could see from that proverbial mountaintop.
Dr. King is no longer with us. But the movement behind him lives on – a movement that is made of everyday people like YOU who are ready to mobilize and organize for a country that lives up to its promises of justice and equality for all.
Our work is not finished. But I know that we have the numbers – and I know that you won’t give up the fight.
– Sean Casten
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