Martin Luther King, Jr’s “A Testament of Hope” and Our Current Moment

Last Friday, I sat down with Marie Cochran, curator of the Affriclacian Artist Project, at the Lillian E. Smith Center to record an episode of “Dope with Lime.” We sat there, on the ground where Smith worked, on what would have been Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 92nd birthday and talked about King, Smith, and memory. Preparing for our discussion, I read King’s “A Testament of Hope” which was published posthumously in Playboy in 1969. As I read King’s essay, I could not help but think about this current moment and the importance of his words to us today in 2021. Today, I want to look at some of King’s essay.

King penned “A Testament of Hope” in 1968, only a few years removed from the Civil Rights and the Voting Rights Acts, during the Vietnam war and protests to he United States’ militarization, during “urban decay,” and during a time of overt white backlash to the progress of the past decade. Throughout, King points out that the issues facing the nation did not arise overnight, they exist “because the tragic evasions and defaults of several centuries have accumulated to disaster proportions.” This accumulation, feeding the nation’s roots, would not, and will not, end with integration or with superficial gains such as diversity initiatives or political positions. While these are good steps, they do not get at the root issues.