Martin Luther King is optimistic that African Americans will have basic rights including voting and other social rights in the future. Such rights will allow African Americans to vote, live in good neighborhoods and interact with White Americans without any discrimination (Gates 107).
In a perfect society, all Americans will be treated equally by the constitution. According to Martin Luther, freedom is about people being judged based on their characters, but not ethnicity (Gates 107). In a perfect society, the constitution will protect all citizens equally. Martin Luther defines freedom as the ability to live how individuals want and to attend any school or motel of choice without restrictions based on race (Gates 108). Luther urges people not rest until freedom is attained.
The speech “I have a dream” by Martin Luther King continues to challenge leaders today (Hansen 23). Today, this speech has continually challenged Americans to recognize everybody’s potential in areas of politics and leadership among other fields.
However, cases of police brutality and incarceration of African Americans are relative high in the American society today (Gates 109). Just recently, there was an African American young man who was shot three times in the neighborhood for walking in White’s settlements. When lobby groups enquired about this incidence, police officers argued that the boy was a criminal. This is an indication that Americans have not yet attained freedom.
The coming of President Obama to power has given most African Americans hope (Gates 109). In fact, the number of African Americans who turned out to vote in the last election is an indicator that Americans are ready to attain freedom. Evidently, Africans and White Americans are now getting to a level where they are putting their differences aside for development.
Works Cited
Gates, Louis. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York, NY: Norton press, 2004. Print.
Hansen, Drew. The Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Speech that Inspired a Nation. New York, NY: Harper Collins, 2003. Print.