Wednesday, August 28, is the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.  It is at the March on Washington that Rev. Martin Luther King Jr gave the speech,  “I Have a Dream...”

Zoë learned about this speech last year in kindergarten and her favorite quote is below:

“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.”

In Zoë’s generation the dream extends to gender, sexual orientation, religion as well as skin color.  

What strikes me the most about the speech, the March and the Civil Rights Movement is that people had to repeatedly demand to have the life they had the right to live.

It has been quite an eye opening month for me. I watched “The Butler” and have been reading voraciously about the memories and perspectives on The March 50 years later.  

My mother-in-law also gave me a life changing book to read this week.  The Warmth of Other Suns by Isabel Wilkerson which chronicles the decades-long migration of black American citizens who fled the South for northern and western cities in search of a better life.

This month of paying attention to and learning African-America history has given me a new language and perspective in which to describe my family history.  My father’s family migrated from Louisiana to Bakersfield, CA and my mother’s family traveled from a small town in Texas to Bakersfield, CA for a better life.  My parents met in Bakersfield and that is where I thought my history began.  That is what I remember in my short scope of years.

But it is not.  My family has a rich and heroic history.  I have so much pride in the new found words that help me explain where I am from and how I got to be here.

Why is it that in August of 2013, I finally get it? Because of the work of so many people to share the untold stories of American history.  

All these stories give me a truer sense of who I am and how I got here by a beach in Maine.

It is the story of seeking a better life regardless of the cost.  

What a gift it is to be black in August 2013.  It is the gift of our history.

This country’s work to fulfill the promise of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence is far from done.  The right to vote and the right marry continue to be under attack as the fragile planks of equality erode over time.  

This month gives us the tools to remember that we can’t sit by in silent assent.

I invite you to read the speech today.  Be inspired to stand up and ask for what you want.

“I Have A Dream...”