"I have a dream"

50 years ago today, Martin Luther King made his famous speech, sparking the major turnaround in the way different races were treated in America. This speech kick-started many equal rights movements across the largest and most powerful country in the world including the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Not only is the speech a vital part of this world’s modern past, but is absolutely integral to its future. I despair to think of a world where Martin Luther King had a dream but couldn’t be bothered to tell us all about it. A world without that speech doesn’t bear thinking about. Unfortunately there are still areas of the world which need to learn from America’s example of civil rights.

“Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”

50 years ago today, the world began to revolutionize. The greatest country began to listen and accept the fact that every human- no matter what colour their skin- was indeed human. But many didn’t like that. Heavily influenced by their parents, adults in the 1960’s thought that unless someone was white, they weren’t worth talking to. They weren’t worth going to the toilet near. They weren’t worth being listened to. Which sparked a whole load of trouble. The KKK. This organisation had been running for hundreds of years already, with a history of ‘superior race’ hate crimes and corps. Many of the citizens of America dressed in their most menacing gang wear and set fire to the homes and work places of black people. Martin Luther King was targeted and no one was safe unless they were wearing a pointed white cap and pillow case. Stupid, right? Well some other people thought so, too.

Including the parents of my 86-year-old friend, Mabel-Anne.

50 years ago today, her parents- Dr and Mrs Sam E. Ashmore- who were closely connected with the churches in Jackson, Mississippi, knew that God loved and loves all people. They went out of their way to spread the same message as Martin Luther King. Mable-Anne and her family had to keep moving, due to death threats to her parents and herself. Their lives and church were hanging in in the balance due to their beliefs and actions. The Ashmores were endangering their lives in the fight against segregation- and they were white.

Despite the many threats to their lives, family and friends, the Ashmores stayed strong in their knowledge of equal love and beliefs of civil rights, and saw the battle through until their end. I am so proud of Mabel-Anne and the bravery her family showed in such a time. I’m proud of every single soul who fought the right side and who contributed to the civil rights movement in America. Though it took many years, Martin Luther King’s dream came true, and the world is a better place for that. Though we mustn’t forget those who gave their time, passion and even lives in the process. Although the act was passed only a year later, it took a long time for the hate crimes from the Ku Klux Klan to stop, and even longer for the people of America to accept the new laws and rights of African-Americans.

I am so lucky to have been brought up in a society without racism and broadcasted prejudices, and I know that at no point in history was segregation of races or apartheid right or deserved. I would fight in favour of civil rights causes if the problem arose again in my country or anywhere else in the world; though if I had been brought up with several generations of prejudices influencing my beliefs, I may not have said that- even if I believed it. It not only takes strength and bravery to believe something, but to say it- it just requires something more. Standing up for something you believe in before hundreds of thousands who want to oppress and obliterate your opinions takes courage and power. Endangering your own life for the rights and protection of others, when it would be safer, simpler and a lot easier to sit back and do nothing, takes such a faith in what you know to be true, it’s almost undetectable in our culture.

“The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing.”

I am so incredibly proud of Mabel-Anne. And I know that she and her existing family would do the same now if they had to- lay their lives down for a cause- despite her living in sheltered accommodation and often forgetting the date, time, or names of those she loves. Because although Mable-Anne has dementia, she is still Mabel-Anne; she still knows what’s right and what she believes.

And I will always be proud to know her.

Mabel-Anne, I love you.

You give me hope.