40 Years Ago Today

It was 40 years ago today that Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated. For all of us, aging boomer's, who were politically active in the 1960s, it seems like just a moment ago.

1968 was an extraordinary year. 2008 has many of the attributes of 1968. Politically, 2008 is an extraordinary year. Not unlike 1968. There is an unpopular war, promoted by an unpopular President. We have a charismatic candidate for President running against, in his own party, someone from the old guard. The public is dispirited and doesn't like the direction of the country.

In some ways, it seems we have come a far ways in 40 years. We have tremendous new technology and in the view of some, an enhanced quality of life in America. In other ways, we have not moved far at all. We have greater concentration of wealth today than we had in 1968. We have a prison population that has grown many times larger as a proportion of the total population. We continue to have citizens suffer from poverty.

The anniversary of Dr. King's death, however, is cause for reflection on the status of African Americans in America. While racism is embedded and institutionalized in many quarters of our country, in these past 40 years, America has shifted from a white bread culture to one that is truly multi-cultural. The manifestation of that is no where more dramatic than in the Obama campaign for the Presidency. Obama is a charismatic, intelligent leader, who happens to be Black. He is not a Black man running for President. That would not have been possible 40 years ago.