All know of King’s work for U.S. racial equality,
His dream, five score years after Lincoln stated, slaves
“Shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.”
King experienced the reality, and gave
Of his boundless spirit and energy to save
The dream of real freedom for blacks in America.
They were forced to give way to whites – sit in the back of the bus,
And in other ways not share the ‘freedoms’ reserved for the rest.
When Rosa Parks did not obey and sat in the front,
King was there and agreed to lead others to confront
These humiliating laws. He’d read Thoreau, and, from him,
“We can no longer lend our cooperation to an evil system.”
He believed opposing poverty and injustice was a Christian duty.
And began to worry he’d be killed before he turned forty.
June Edvenson 