Friend,

Anyone who tells you our nation is beyond hope is wrong. I write to you in this gap between the dawn of a new year and our annual marking of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. In this moment of annual reflection on our nation’s direction, I believe it’s urgent that we all realize that the deep fissures in our nation can be healed. 

I know this is true because my own life has shown it to me. 

I was born on a bridge — a bridge between North and South, Black and White; between the old America of the East Coast and the cutting edge that has always been the Golden State. When I was born, that bridge was on fire, literally and figuratively. America had been rocked by multiple assassinations and the uprisings that followed, leaving most of our major cities, including my family’s beloved home of Baltimore, in flames. The Vietnam War was finally ending, and the smoke from the battlefields had not yet completely cleared. My own family was dealing with the deep wounds caused by my parents having to leave their homes in Maryland to get married because unions like theirs were still illegal. My father’s grandfather even chose to disinherit him from choosing to marry a Black woman.

Since I was 14, I’ve stayed on the battlefield for Civil Rights and contributed in every way I could imagine to pull our nation together. While studying at some of the greatest universities in the world, what my lived experience has taught me is this: America can heal. I’ve seen it in my own family, I’ve seen it in communities from California to Mississippi, from New York to Baltimore. And in the process, that healing is what promises to make our communities of every color stronger, healthier and more prosperous.

So please, this MLK day, take a moment with your family to sit down, celebrate the victories of the past year, like the confirmation of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson and the passing of the Inflation Reduction Act that promises to accelerate us toward a more sustainable and just economy. 

Please, also take a moment to encourage young and old alike to keep the faith, and not grow weary in well-doing. Keep organizing to make a better future come faster. That’s the true legacy of Dr. King. 

Yours with Hope,

Benjamin Todd Jealous

Ps: As many of you know, I lost my 105 year old Grandmother this summer. She was my greatest teacher. And in the years that she was dying, I sat down to work through all I’d learned in the movement from my greatest teachers, including her.

That wisdom is published in my new book, Never Forget Our People Were Always Free: A Parable of American Healing, which launched on January 10th. Please buy a copy. You can order your copy today on Amazon or you can pick it up at your local independent bookstore. 

PowerPAC is a social justice organization that strategically directs financial and human resources to local and state organizations working to deliver wins in legislative fights, ballot initiatives, and more. For years the money we've raised has, dollar for dollar, been given back to the communities we work with. We've made sure that your investments were being used to build power for our communities because too often we are underrepresented and ignored. 

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