As a young teenager, I can still remember watching on Mom and Dad’s black and white tv the, “I Have a Dream Speech.” Having always been a political junkie, I still remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. crusading for racial equality and economic justice. Back in the day I enjoyed reading Letters from an American, a newsletter written by Professor Heather Cox Richardson from the University of Maine. On the night of April 3, 1968, which was the night before Dr. King was assassinated, I read excerpts from the speech he gave at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tennessee. Dr. King was in Memphis to lead protests for sanitation workers who were woefully underpaid and subject to dangerous conditions. A few quotes from the speech are as follows:

“If God had let him choose any era in which to live, he would have chosen the one in which he had landed because the world is all messed up. The nation is sick. Trouble is in the land; confusion all around…. But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough, can you see the stars.”

“I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn’t matter…because I’ve been to the mountaintop…. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life…. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!”

Strangely, some of the things he said that night in his speech leave me to believe that somehow, he knew that his days were numbered. Even though his life was cut short, he has made a lasting impact on me, my fellow Americans, and the world! What a magnificent American he was!

We’re here for the people of South Carolina!