“I have a dream today…” They are THE words we remember today as we celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. But, as songs, and plays, speeches, art exhibits, and volunteer good-works of every kind go on across the nation in King’s honor, stop and think a moment:  we may have a great gospel singer to thank for the most memorable parts of King’s famous speech at the March on Washington. On the hot summer day in 1963, the end of the famous protest was at hand, and about a quarter of a million people  listened to the final speaker, Dr. King, as he delivered a prepared text of eloquence and beauty on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, to the crowd on the Mall. Gospel great, Mahalia Jackson, was in the crowd. She cried out: “Tell them about the dream, Martin!’.  And King left the prepared text behind, and began to deliver his vision of a world where people of every creed and color could enjoy all rights equally – and join hands to sing the old spiritual words: “Free at last, free at last, thank God Almighty, I’m free at last.” There were other organizers of that March on Washington.  But we don’t think of them.  There were other speakers at that March on Washington.  But their words don’t ring down through history as do King’s. He was a Baptist preacher and he spoke his vision from the pulpit to the world.   He was a Christian, but took his inspiration from Ghandi for the non-violent creed he believed in and practiced.  He was gently critical of Malcolm X, who believed violence was justified in the drive for racial equality and wanted nothing to do with the white man.  It is said the two met only once, for about a minute, on the steps of the Capitol, where both had come to hear  debate on the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which passed. He was a husband and father of four children. Born and raised in the Deep South where the laws of segregation were designed to block him, a young black man, from every significant opportunity, as well as restaurants, drinking fountains and the like. But he was born to a spiritual and accomplished family and he did not disappoint.  His grandfather and father had been pastors at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, and King followed in their footsteps.  But the path he took was different.  His mission, equal rights for all Americans, led him to jail, over and over again, to beatings, to attacks on his home, to water cannon and police dogs and the Nobel Peace Prize.  He had a PhD from Boston University and a college degree from Morehouse, a predominantly black college in Atlanta that’s one of the nation’s premiere institutions.  He wrote five books and countless articles .He knew history.  And he made history. The Civil War supposedly had brought an end to slavery for black Americans in the United States. But, 100 years later, Martin Luther King Junior saw so much work left to do.  And he did it.   As a husband, and a father of four, Dr. King had a future he wanted for the world, and for his own family. In Birmingham – King and other leaders met  with the violence of billy clubs, angry officers, snarling dogs, beatings and arrests. The scenes were televised, shocked the nation, and made King much more famous.  He sent the world his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” and began helping to plan the March on Washington.  That’s where he would stand, at the Lincoln Memorial, to make his famous speech.

King has his own monument now, not far from where he spoke on that famous day.  He stands, arms crossed, looking outward, 30 feet tall, so tall visitors can gather below in his shadow, in a kind of spiritual embrace.  The smooth granite statue emerges from more rough hewn rock.  The sculptor’s theme was that King would seem that “stone of hope”   from “a mountain of despair” – ideas taken from The Dream speech.

Quotes from King surround the complex. One of them will be changed. Sculptor and architect shortened King’s comparison of himself to a ‘Drum Major for Justice”.  Critics point out that in the full quote, King was trying to tell people that if they insisted on praising him as a drum major – they must know he was doing it for the right things, not to show off.  He was not insisting on the title for himself. For many of us, the words he spoke the night before he died move the most.  “I have been to the mountaintop, I may not get there with you, but we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.” The next day, on a balcony in Memphis, an assassin’s bullet took his life but not his legacy. He was in Memphis to help with a protest movement.  Which brings us to another quote from MLK:  ”Life’s most persistent question is – what are you going to do for others?” Today – this national holiday, is a national day of service and if you’re looking for a project, check MLKDay.gov.  You’ll find plenty there, courtesy of the Obama White House. The first black American president and family clapped, sang and swayed to Amazing Grace to honor King during a visit to Zion Baptist Church in D.C. yesterday.  And King family and friends were at the memorial laying a wreath – they’ll be back today.

Today’s the day we sing Stevie Wonder’s version of ‘Happy Birthday’, composed to push for the national holiday we have now.  It has its own unique melody – for The Dreamer and the dream millions hope and work to make more real with each new day.