Where There’s a Will, There’s a Way : King anniversary reminds America anew of the need to commit to fight for fairness

In his final years, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. advocated economic justice in addition to racial equality. He reached out to “the ill-housed, ill-nourished and shabbily clad” of all races in the ghettos of the North, in the rural areas of the South and Appalachia. He even invited his white jailers to join the march.

In his final days, he planned a national campaign that would include people locked out of the system, people who would later take his message--without him--to Washington. And in his final church sermon King challenged “America, the richest nation in the world . . . to help bridge the gulf between the haves and the have-nots.”

There is no denying the dramatic progress since King was assassinated in 1968. Since then, the black middle class has tripled in size. Today, nearly 1.5 million African-Americans are professionals and managers in jobs that were once off-limits. Today, nearly 7,000 black elected officials set policy in Congress, state houses and city halls throughout America.

Nevertheless, during the last decade, the rich--of all races--have gotten richer; the poor--of every ethnicity--have gotten poorer.

President Bush visited the King Center last week in advance of today’s national holiday commemorating the anniversary of the civil right leader’s birth. King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, avoided discussing politics, but she had already decried the recent increase in American misery. She told reporters: “What we’ve got is more unemployment. Cruel. More homelessness. People sick and astronomical medical bills.” The economic climate is indeed gloomy, but these problems are not intractable.

America needs another King-like campaign to encourage broad economic development that translates into millions of new entrepreneurs and new employees. America needs for all its people to focus on what they have in common, not their differences, and to understand that King never wanted the fight for progress to depend on one charismatic leader.

Dr. King didn’t question whether this rich nation had the technical ability or the resources to end poverty. He asked: Do we have the will?