Martin Luther King Jr.'s Vision Misinterpreted by Affirmative Action Opponents
On a warm August day in 1963, Martin Luther King, Jr. stood before the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and gave stirring voice to the Civil Rights Movement's most basic aspirations.
Among the many ideas that he outlined in what has become known as his "I Have a Dream" speech was a hopeful vision for a future in which his children could "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."
Surely King never dreamed then that his eloquence would one day be turned against initiatives designed to target the kind of political, economic and social injustices that gave rise to the historic movement he helped to lead. Since the 1980s, however, opponents of affirmative action have cloaked their assault on such programs in the potent rhetoric of King's dream. CORNELIUS BYNUM in The Journal and Courier