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:: Thursday, August 28, 2003 ::

Reflecting on the Dream
It's been 40 years since Martin Luther King Jr. preached his most famous sermon, one that has reverberated through the years to touch millions. Bryan Robinson was 19 at the time, but as he explains in this essay, King's "I Have a Dream" speech came too late for Robinson's grandfather.

At the time, Grandpa was a 41-year-old frustrated engineer forced to work in the Post Office. A graduate of Stuyvesant High School — one of New York City's best — he wanted to attend a college in the City University of New York system. Segregation was not legalized in the North as it was in the South, but racism still existed in subtle ways.

The CUNY schools did accept black students. But my grandfather believed that they only accepted bourgeois blacks whose parents held prestigious jobs and whose complexion was not too dark. Grandpa didn't meet those standards.

As for Robinson's grandmother:

Nana was a housekeeper for a white family in Washington Heights. As a child, my mother often would accompany Nana to work, and she would witness some life lessons in role-playing.

In front of her employers, Nana — who was born in Virginia — was the subservient family maid who knew her role and did her job. Outside work — and sometimes under her breath at work — Nana would mutter insults at employers and curse their dirty underwear.

Forty years later, Robinson writes, the time of King's speech and his grandparents' life seems like ancient history. The passage of time has watered down its impact. "Dr. King's legacy is assured," he adds, "but perhaps his memory has become a cliche to my generation and those who have followed. Maybe there's less of an appreciation for history. Maybe seeing the same black-and-white footage of Dr. King delivering the same speech during Black History Month and on Martin Luther King Day just doesn't strike a chord any more."

:: Andrew 09:22 + ::
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