Ronald Reagan’s news clip about Martin Luther King could have come from today, but it was from January 15, 1987. Reagan starts off by saying that Dr. King is more than the man students briefly learn about in your high school history class, the coloring book portrayal. He was a man that changed the ways that Americans thought and acted. Only two other people are important enough to have a holiday, where children are off of school for and that is George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Today that has changed to Presidents Day, but calendars are still marked with Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthday. Another difference is that it is not student’s parents that can remember Dr. King it is now only our grandparents that remember the impact King had on our country.
In 1987, like today students are taught minimal amount of information about the impact people like George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Martin Luther King had on our nation. This little bit of information that schools are teaching students does not include the good, bad and the ugly. It only includes the good and how much of a strong leader this man was. That is another point is that students mostly learn about historical men that made a difference, not women. There were just as many women, if not more in the Civil Rights movement, but we decided to celebrate King. Don’t get me wrong he did so many amazing and revolutionary things, but he was not the only one.
Reagan then goes on to say that the newest generation has the duty to pick up where King left off to end racism. Doesn’t that sound like something we would say today? In the end, he says that we do not want anything else to happen like an event that just did because of racism. That could not be an even more true statement. Police brutality is something that has been happening since slaves were freed and before that, it was slave owners brutalizing. Reagan reiterates that racism is out of the laws and now it has to be out of people’s minds and hearts. Like many things, this is easier said than done because we are still dealing with these problems today. How long do you think Reagan thought it would take for our nation to get rid of racism? Or, will it always be a concept that we will have to deal with?
Reagan, Ronald. “Ronald Reagan’s MLK Day Message from 1987.” Filmed January 15, 1987.
Video, January 15, 2018
I really would like to think that morals will eventually prevail and we will rid the nation of racism. I think progress is made with each generation that comes down the line, being farther removed from the time of slavery and the worst of racial discrimination. Yet, this idea of needing to pick up where King left off is interesting. It seems to imply that the Civil Rights movement occurred, completed, and must be started again. However, I don't think this is the case. To me, this time period will be in the history books today all as a combined struggle for equal rights, probably spanning most of the 1900's and then the next 20+ years. I see this all as a continuous battle, in which King and others began the legal battle in 1950's and 60's, and we are now fighting the moral battle that will continue on until people are just people. I think even the equal rights of women, religious affiliation, and LGBTQ individuals will be considered in this part of history, and that it is not something that ever ended, but has continued on even today.
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