“Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and establish such creative tension that a community that has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue,”

MLK

Sixty years ago our nation was forced to evaluate its ideals, such as justice for all. Some think we’re now in a post-racial inequality era and have no need for the civil rights or voting right laws that were passed in the 1960s. Do you think we’re achieved civil rights and voting rights equality and no longer need those laws?

Yesterday was about benefiting from what previous generations did for us… This one is about what we’re doing with the legacy left to us. It’s not really relevant for middle school students, but they’ll feel the repercussions of the unraveling of the gains made by the life and death of MLK and the others that came before. To think that this chapter is done, that civil rights and voting rights don’t need to be protected, is so insular and conveniently self-centered. The notion that these crack downs are about dealing with voter fraud, when no actual voter fraud has been proven is such a blatant lie. Of course we want secure elections, but that’s not the same as actively making it harder and harder to exercise the right to vote. I get that you don’t want “those people” to vote, but. If they’re citizens, then doing anything to not let them vote or interfering with their right to vote is unAmerican. I’m frustrated and exhausted by all of these efforts to silence the legitimate votes of Americans, just because some can’t imagine that others don’t agree with their beliefs. Sorry, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we’ve let the powerful and the self-interested rich overturn and water down your legacy and dream. We’re nowhere near realizing your dream, and sadly a lot of my young students have no idea what maybe possibly slipping away.