21, 2025
General Superintendent
Max Edwards
Yesterday, our nation observed a holiday celebrating the birthday of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose earthly life was tragically cut short by an assassin’s bullet on April 4, 1968. Hard to believe that he accomplished so much in his brief 39 years.
I was born and raised in the Midwest state of Iowa. The demographic data for my home state in the 1960s reveal that African Americans accounted for only 2% of the population. I share this to say that the issue of civil rights for black Americans was not particularly hot-button in my hometown of Newton.
For that reason, I don’t remember hearing much about Dr. King in my youth, but the more I became aware of his life and brave leadership, the deeper my respect for him has grown, as one who helped bring about such desperately needed social change.
He and so many others faced a torrent of hatred and prejudice, but Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. consistently advocated for non-violent resistance to segregation and so many other abuses during the era of Jim Crow laws that provided for “separate, but equal” social rules that, while SEPARATE, were ALMOST NEVER equal. His stand on non-violence was not always popular with his contemporaries, as some were attempting to stir violent and militant responses to the very real injustices so many were subject to.
In many ways, Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered in August of 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, envisioned an America that, at the time, seemed so very distant but, in many ways, is now a reality. Thank you, Dr. King, for dreaming for us and for helping to bring those dreams to life, at least in part. Here is a small portion of his speech, spoken that day over 60 years ago:
“I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.” I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
“I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.”