Today’s federal holiday that honors Dr. Martin Luther King Jr comes during a time when the issue of race in America continues to be an issue.
When the Reverend Dr. King led marches and preached non-violence during the 1950s and 1960s, he pushed for changes in state and federal laws against discrimination that led to the historic Civil Rights Act in 1964.
Up until then, restaurants, bathrooms and drinking fountains for so-called “colored people” were still seen in parts of our country. And today that is still hard to comprehend for a lot of us.
The San Diego History Center has described those times back then as when San Diego was known across the Black community as “the Mississippi of the West” due to its record of discrimination in housing, employment, lending and other things.
And it was during an address by Dr. King at San Diego State in 1964, when a group was passing out leaflets calling Dr. King a communist, that he said this: “The law can’t force you to love me, but it can restrain you from lynching me.”
And now these many years later, our country still confronts issues of race and racism. Today it would be wise for everyone to remember those famous words by the Reverend Dr. King:
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”
READ MORE about Dr. King's visits to San Diego.
(Photo Getty Images)