Jackson brings unity, nostalgia on Martin Luther King Jr. Day

On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial Aug. 28, 1963, in Washington, D.C., the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his powerful "I Have a Dream" speech — revered as one of the most famous orations in American history.

In one of King's verses, he said the following:

"When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children — black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics — will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, ‘Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!'"

King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn., and never lived to see his dream come true.

Many might argue that it still hasn't. But, for one night in Wilson Hall, King's dream became a reality.

Over 1,300 people filled the Wilson Hall Auditorium, and hundreds more crowed Grafton-Stovall Theatre and the College Center Grand Ballroom last night to hear the Rev. Jesse Jackson speak during the 17th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Week. There were no overwhelming numbers of one specific group among the 1,300 in attendance. Instead, there was a mixture of gender, race, religion, sexual orientation and background.

JMU has been criticized for its lack of diversity. President Linwood Rose even assembled a presidential commission in September 2003 to improve diversity among the school's student enrollment, as well as its faculty and staff employment.

Of JMU's 15,612 students, 13,215 were Caucasian, according to the Office of Institutional Research's 2002-'03 statistical summary.

Throughout Jackson's speech, he discussed the progress in striving for equality — part of the American dream. He talked about racial problems during the Civil Rights Movement. Jackson used football as an analogy for how the color of someone's skin doesn't matter anymore like it did when racism was at its height in the 1960s.

Jackson described how a "crazy" white guy with a foam cheese hat and wearing no shirt during freezing weather in Green Bay, Wis., would root for a black football player on Green Bay's football team to beat a white guy on the Chicago Bears' team. At the same time, a black guy from Chicago would root for the white player to crush the black player who played for Green Bay.

Jackson said the pursuit of equality doesn't always have to involve race. He said the poor, working class also were victims. He talked about the broken promise of democracy, as well as the broken promise of the Emancipation Proclamation to truly free all people.

Jackson noted that more progress can be made. Before he exited the stage, Jackson said, "Long live the dream."

It is likely King would be proud of the progress that has been made in the goal for equality since the 1960s. However, he probably would agree that there is plenty of room for improvement before his ultimate goal is reached.