A King For A Day, A Dream For Generations

Today Los Angeles observes Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Like many public figures, he has been immortalized in this City: A 6.5-mile east-west thoroughfare (formerly Santa Barbara Avenue), a vital, yet beleaguered medical center in South Los Angeles, a library (and a green one at that) on the Los Angeles City College campus in East Hollywood, an elementary school, a therapeutic recreation center for people with disabilities and of course, a grand parade in the Crenshaw District (the Militant took you there last year).

The surrounding 'burbs aren't left out, either: The City of Compton (City O' Comp-ton) has a memorial monument, a transit center and an elementary school. Long Beach has a park.

The man himself even preached at a couple local churches just weeks before the early morning April 4 where shots rang out over Memphis skies.

Like the song said, they took his life, but they could not take his pride.

When King gave his iconic "I Have A Dream" speech in August 1963, he made it clear his vision was not necessarily for the people listening but his children and generations after. That very moment, in the extreme opposite end of the country, there was a little 2-year old toddler who was probably more captivated with playing with toy fire trucks at the time.

Tomorrow, that toddler will stand on the steps of the Capitol and recite the oath of office as President of the United States. just goes to show that the fruits of one's labor, of one's passion, won't get to bloom for a while, but in time, it inevitably will. The Militant finds inspiration in that thought -- today the Militant types mere words into a web page. But who knows what will come of that decades from now?

Militant reader BradleyB made this awesome interactive Google Map with the locations the Militant described earlier in this post. Militant props!


View Larger Map


Photo: MLK Mural in Pacoima, circa 1980