the challenge of meeting King's goalsAs Americans join together to commemorate Dr. Martin Luther King Day, members of every ethnic and religious community should remember that the Rev. King understood that people who fight for their own rights are only honorable when they also fight for the rights of all people.
Were King alive today, he would be at the forefront of fighting the current wave of terrifying expressions of anti-Semitism spreading across the globe. He would not tolerate the moral laryngitis that many political leaders seem to suffer in the face of these despicable acts against the Jewish people. He championed the civil rights of Jews, spoke out for the human rights of Soviet Jews and did not hesitate to denounce anti-Semitism within his own community.
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The black/Jewish partnership that was such an integral part of the civil rights movement is now but one piece of the ethnic mosaic in 2004 America. The face of the United States has changed since the protests and sit-ins of the 1960s. Changing demographics continue to alter the ethnic makeup of the United States. We have seen the emergence of the Latino community, now the largest minority in America, with a population of 38.8 million. The African-American population has reached 36.6 million, and the Asian-American population has surged to 12.7 million.
King was prophetic in calling on members of all communities to rise up together in the face of injustice. Referencing the days leading up to the Holocaust, he said, "If Protestants and Catholics had engaged in nonviolent direct action and had made the oppression of the Jews their very own oppression ... and had Gentiles worn the stigmatizing yellow armbands by the millions, a unique form of mass resistance to the Nazis might have developed."
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