Juan Williams: 50 Years Later, King Is Alive, Waking from His Dream

It also marks 50 years since I was a little boy with a dad. Fifty years ago my dad with his brown skin could not have been a political analyst for a major network. He could not have been an editorial writer and White House correspondent for a major paper. I did those jobs for The Washington Post. And 50 years ago he could not have lived in an integrated neighborhood in most of America. I do.

The changing realities of my life as compared to my dad’s life is one of many reasons the United States has to be proud of the progress we as a nation have made for the civil and economic rights of African-Americans since the March on Washington.

However, like the ‘Eye of Providence’ that sits atop the unfinished pyramid on the Great Seal of the United States, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Dream” also sees a nation still struggling to make sure young people of every color can be born free of poverty, have get an education, and still move up and achieve their American dream.

There is nothing wrong with the truth that we as a nation are still at work at achieving true equality. America is constant experiment in democracy, a constant reach to live up to the ideals expressed by the Founding Fathers of equality for all.

Civil rights leaders often dodge the answer to the question “How Far” we have come in 50 years. They don’t want to acknowledge how much has changed for fear that others will think race is no longer a factor. Race is obviously still a factor by rates of unemployment, poverty, infant mortality, incarceration and life expectancy.
But telling the truth about the great strides made in the last 50 years to achieve Dr. King’s vision of the sons of slaves and sons of slave owners sitting together, judging each other on the basis of character and not skin color, is an inspiring story even if there are some goals still over the horizon.

Just think about how bizarre it would have sounded 50 years ago if a speaker at the March on Washington predicted a black president shortly after the turn of the century.


On Sunday, Georgia Congressman John Lewis, the last surviving speaker from the 1963 March, spoke to that startling reality:
Via: Fox News

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