{"id":3985,"date":"2011-01-17T06:00:20","date_gmt":"2011-01-17T11:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=3985"},"modified":"2011-01-17T06:00:20","modified_gmt":"2011-01-17T11:00:20","slug":"the-dream-then-and-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/?p=3985","title":{"rendered":"The “Dream” Then and Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

On today, Martin Luther King Day, it seems to me one of the best ways to spend it is to read his powerful words and those of Langston Hughes, and reflect on how far we’ve come and how far we have yet to go before meeting the call for meaningful equality among all people in our nation. On the heels of the tragedy in Arizona, it seems particularly important to “forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline,” rather than devolving into bitterness, hatred, or violence.
\nYou can read the entire text of the “I have a dream” speech here, in its entirety<\/a>, or watch it here<\/a>. Below is a section from the end that resonates so deeply, followed by the poem, “Let America be America Again” by Langston Hughes. Both do such a beautiful job of illuminating where we’ve come from, and where we yet need to go.<\/p>\n

“I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.<\/p>\n

“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.’<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“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.<\/p>\n

“I have a dream today.<\/p>\n

“I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.<\/p>\n

“I have a dream today.<\/p>\n

“I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.<\/p>\n

“This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.<\/p>\n

“This will be the day when all of God’s children will be able to sing with a new meaning, ‘My country, ’tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim’s pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring.’<\/p>\n

“And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!<\/p>\n

“Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!<\/p>\n

“Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!<\/p>\n

“But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!<\/p>\n

“Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!<\/p>\n

“Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.<\/p>\n

“And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”<\/p>\n

Isn’t in incredible that almost fifty years later, those words still make you want to stand up and cheer?! We’ve come such a long, long way, but still have a long way to go. Langston Hughes’s poem below strikes notes resonant of the economic disparities that still plague our country, and imagines an inclusive American dream.<\/p>\n

Let America be America Again<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Let America be America again.
\nLet it be the dream it used to be.
\nLet it be the pioneer on the plain
\nSeeking a home where he himself is free.
\n(America never was America to me.)
\nLet America be the dream the dreamers dreamed–
\nLet it be that great strong land of love
\nWhere never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
\nThat any man be crushed by one above.
\n(It never was America to me.)
\nO, let my land be a land where Liberty
\nIs crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
\nBut opportunity is real, and life is free,
\nEquality is in the air we breathe.
\n(There’s never been equality for me,
\nNor freedom in this “homeland of the free.”)
\nSay, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
\nAnd who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
\nI am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
\nI am the Negro bearing slavery’s scars.
\nI am the red man driven from the land,
\nI am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek–
\nAnd finding only the same old stupid plan
\nOf dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
\nI am the young man, full of strength and hope,
\nTangled in that ancient endless chain
\nOf profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
\nOf grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
\nOf work the men! Of take the pay!
\nOf owning everything for one’s own greed!
\nI am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
\nI am the worker sold to the machine.
\nI am the Negro, servant to you all.
\nI am the people, humble, hungry, mean–
\nHungry yet today despite the dream.
\nBeaten yet today–O, Pioneers!
\nI am the man who never got ahead,
\nThe poorest worker bartered through the years.
\nYet I’m the one who dreamt our basic dream
\nIn the Old World while still a serf of kings,
\nWho dreamt a dream so strong, so brave, so true,
\nThat even yet its mighty daring sings
\nIn every brick and stone, in every furrow turned
\nThat’s made America the land it has become.
\nO, I’m the man who sailed those early seas
\nIn search of what I meant to be my home–
\nFor I’m the one who left dark Ireland’s shore,
\nAnd Poland’s plain, and England’s grassy lea,
\nAnd torn from Black Africa’s strand I came
\nTo build a “homeland of the free.”
\nThe free?
\nWho said the free? Not me?
\nSurely not me? The millions on relief today?
\nThe millions shot down when we strike?
\nThe millions who have nothing for our pay?
\nFor all the dreams we’ve dreamed
\nAnd all the songs we’ve sung
\nAnd all the hopes we’ve held
\nAnd all the flags we’ve hung,
\nThe millions who have nothing for our pay–
\nExcept the dream that’s almost dead today.
\nO, let America be America again–
\nThe land that never has been yet–
\nAnd yet must be–the land where every man is free.
\nThe land that’s mine–the poor man’s, Indian’s, Negro’s, ME–
\nWho made America,
\nWhose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
\nWhose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
\nMust bring back our mighty dream again.
\nSure, call me any ugly name you choose–
\nThe steel of freedom does not stain.
\nFrom those who live like leeches on the people’s lives,
\nWe must take back our land again,
\nAmerica!
\nO, yes,
\nI say it plain,
\nAmerica never was America to me,
\nAnd yet I swear this oath–
\nAmerica will be!
\nOut of the rack and ruin of our gangster death,
\nThe rape and rot of graft, and stealth, and lies,
\nWe, the people, must redeem
\nThe land, the mines, the plants, the rivers.
\nThe mountains and the endless plain–
\nAll, all the stretch of these great green states–
\nAnd make America again!<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Those of us in the field of children’s book publishing have a unique opportunity to help shape\u2014through the vision of our books and the makeup of our multitude of publishers, editors, writers, artists, agents, and designers. ShelfTalker has addressed some of these aspects here<\/a> and here<\/a>, and we need to revisit and revise these ideas frequently, with hope and purpose and forward motion.
\nHappy Martin Luther King Day, everyone. Aren’t we lucky to have had that courageous, articulate, passionate man in our midst! May we continue to honor his memory\u2014and that of Langston Hughes, and every human being who has dared to take a stand for equality and justice\u2014by paying more than lip service to the dream of an equal, inclusive, and most colorful world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On today, Martin Luther King, Jr., Day, it seems to me one of the best ways to spend it is to read his powerful words and those of Langston Hughes, and reflect on how far we’ve come and how far we have yet to go before meeting the call for meaningful equality among all people in our nation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3985\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.publishersweekly.com\/blogs\/shelftalker\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}