Let justice roll down like water, righteousness like a mighty stream.
For our grandsons and granddaughters remember to remember the dream
Welcome to Songs and Stories from Home as we continue to Remember the Dream. This week Malcolm X.
We can’t separate peace from freedom because we cannot be at peace unless we are free. – Malcolm X
We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience. – Martin Luther King, Jr.
Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. helped define the character and the conscience of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 60’s. One grew up a street kid and the other a preacher’s kid. They both became ministers giving voice to a moment with words that echo down the corridors of time and resonate to this day. One urged his fellow black Americans to protect themselves against white aggression by “any means necessary.” The other practiced and preached non-violence until the day he died. Neither of them made it to their 40th birthdays. Both of them shot and killed speaking their truth loudly and clearly.
In many ways they were and are, I believe, the Yin and Yang of America’s chance at atonement for its great crime against humanity, slavery, a crime that has no statute of limitations.
Martin Luther King, Jr. has a monument built near the reflecting pond of our nation. It is a testament to the lasting relevance of his eloquence, to the importance of his message of bending the moral arc of the universe toward justice and a single beloved community.
Malcolm X’s story is well told in his own words with the help of the author, Alex Haley, in The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Spike Lee also put Malcolm X’s life on the screen featuring a tour de force performance by Denzel Washington in the title role.
Together Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. help tell the story of a country that continues to war with itself and struggles to live with its conscience. Only by knowing where we are and how we got here can we truly know what it is to have peace and a clear conscience.
Let justice roll down like water, righteousness like a mighty stream.
For our grandsons and granddaughters remember to remember the dream
