March on Washington: What Would Martin Luther King Jr. Say Today?

This article originally appeared on Georgetown Patch

Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech on August 28, 1963, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

President Barack Obama will speak Wednesday, standing on those same steps to address a crowd on the civil rights successes and struggles of the past half-century. 

But several activists, pundits and columnists are focused on what King would say in 2013. Here are five thoughts: 

1. "Today, at age 84, King would no doubt still be on the front lines, lending his voice and his energy to major battles for justice," Peter Dreier wrote in a piece in Sunday's Washington Post. Dreier is a professor of politics and an author on social justice. He says voting rights, gun reform, immigration and more would have been among King's priorities. 

2. Washington Post sports columnist Sally Jenkins suggested King would encourage athletes at the 2014 Winter Olympics to protest over recent anti-gay laws in Russia.

"Fifty years ago, King gave his most famous speech," Jenkins wrote. "But 45 years ago this summer, he was involved in a lesser-known episode, when he urged John Carlos and Tommie Smith to take the action that became their immortal black-gloved salute at the 1968 Summer Games in Mexico City."

3. On "Face the Nation," Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., said King would stress the fight for racial equality isn't over. 

According to Lewis, "If Dr. King could speak to us, he would say, 'We've come a distance. We've made a lot of progress. You're in the process of laying down the burden of race. But we're not there yet.'"

4. Dr. Howard Fuller, co-founder of the faith-based Black Alliance for Educational Options, told Fox News he believes King would be disappointed by the state of education in the black community. 

5. On the eve of his speech commemorating the 50th anniversary, President Obama invited Tom Joyner and Sybil Wilkes of the Tom Joyner Morning Show to the Oval Office, where he specifically addressed the question.

“I think that Dr. King would be amazed in many ways about the progress that we’ve made. I don’t think that he would look and say nothing has changed. He would say, the fact that we have equal rights before the law; the fact that the judicial system and the courts are accessible; and that African-Americans serve on juries; and that we have thousands of African-American elected officials all across the country; and that we’ve got African-American CEOs of Fortune 100 companies; and we have a large thriving congressional black caucus, and that, as a consequence of some of the doors that he and others helped kick down, Latinos and women and Asians and the disabled and gays and lesbians, that they all also suddenly found a seat at the table — I think he would say it was a glorious thing."

What do you think King would tell the crowd today? Tell us in the comments!

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