As Martin Luther King Day and Black History Month approaches, we reflect on Dr. King's legacy and his dream for a world in which Black people are not "judged by the color of their skin, but the content of their character." Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement at large fought for equal rights in an America where those rights were not afforded for people of color. The Civil Rights Movement lead to improvements in the quality of life for Black people, particularly through the passing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 1965 and the dismantling of Jim Crow legislation in the South.
As far as we have come, we still have so far to go. The murder of George Floyd in 2020 and the ensuing social unrest exemplifies this very fact.
While there is work to be done on many levels, SAA strives to make positive change in academia. We hope to create a better learning environment and better career opportunities for underrepresented minority students. No student should feel unsupported or isolated in the classroom or in their search for a career.
As we commemorate Dr. King's legacy, we leave you with an excerpt from his infamous "I Have a Dream" speech:
And if America is to be a great nation, this [dream] must become true. And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that, let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.
And when this happens, and when we allow 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.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. "I Have a Dream" speech, Aug. 28, 1963