The WorldBlu Blog

Today I had a life-changing experience. In the US on this day we celebrate the pioneering life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. I decided to spend part of the day joining in the celebration at the church where Dr. King used to preach, Ebenezer Baptist Church, located just blocks from where I live. It was an experience I am still trying to catch my breath from it was so remarkable.

When I moved to Atlanta from Washington, DC late last summer, I did not realize at the time that I was moving into MLK’s old neighborhood, the Old Fourth Ward. I live just a few blocks from the Martin Luther King Jr. historical museum and monument (as well as Ebenezer Baptist Church) and just a mile down the road from the Carter Center. As someone who considers herself a modern-day freedom fighter, I draw deep inspiration as I work each day in the same neighborhood where Dr. King worked and where President Carter also works and built his center.

So this morning, thanks to my good friend Keith who found out the details of the event (thanks Keith!), I was able to attend the 40th anniversary celebration of Dr. King. A few weeks earlier my good friend Kevin was in town and we toured the monument. He was working on a speech he was giving about spiritual freedom and wanted to parallel his message with Dr. King’s. As we toured the museum, read and listened to Dr. King’s great words and saw many of his historical acts of courage and nonviolence captured on film, I couldn’t help but notice that his quest was about more than just civil rights – it was a quest to help humankind connect with a freedom that is divine and inviolate.

While at the MLK museum and at the recommendation of my friend Kevin, I also picked up a collection of Dr. King’s speeches entitled, “A Knock at Midnight.” They are phenomenal and I highly recommend them.

This morning’s celebration was nothing short of spectacular. One by one the various speakers took the stage to deliver their message of hope and remembrance and each time I was deeply moved by their messages.

At 8:15 am, the church’s gospel choir started singing and had us all dancing and clapping and having a great time! At 10:00 am the celebration official began and lasted until about 2:00 pm. Dr. Christine King Farris, the sister of Martin Luther King Jr. and author of My Brother Martin: A Sister Remembers, presided, with great dignity, over the celebration.

We opened with the Star Spangled Banner and then sang what is considered the Negro National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” A rabbi gave a scriptural reading from the Old Testament and a priest gave one from the New Testament. Then senator Johnny Isakson spoke, along with the Lieutenant Governor, Casey Cagle and US Congressman Sanford Bishop. The premier of KwaZulu-Natal, Sibusiso Ndebele also spoke. (I had the opportunity to visit KwaZulu-Natal four years ago when I was in South Africa, so it was fun to see a representative from that beautiful part of the world.) The new senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church, the Reverend Dr. Raphael Warnock, also spoke. He is just 35 years old and apparently the people love him!

All of the speakers were fantastic orators. I was amazed. There is something about the South that really brings out the soul in people. But it was our lovely mayor of Atlanta, Shirley Franklin, who impressed me the most. She is by far one of the most gifted and moving speakers – let alone a politician! – I have ever heard. Her style was very Dr. King-esque, and with her own vibrancy and flair she reminded us how far we’ve come as a people. It was electric and she had us all on our feet clapping and stomping and shouting in agreement!

There were school children that spoke and a group of young dancers dressed in white who danced to the late Yolanda Denise King’s dedicatory speech about her father recorded a few years ago. Ms. King passed away this past year, so it was a moving tribute to her and her energy and dedication continuing her father’s work, as all of the King children have.

The president of Morehouse and Agnes Scott also spoke. Then came another speech that made me misty-eyed. It was from Dr. Sen Yang, the President of Mid-USA Falun Dafa Association. Dr. Yang is originally from China and he spoke about how when he first got to the US 15 years ago he was overcome with how everyone could express themselves without getting arrested, worship as they chose, do what they love and live life out loud. There was only one word for it and it was “freedom.” His speech reminded all of us what a gift it is to live in a country where we can be free.

Several more speeches and music and then a special guest spoke – former President Bill Clinton. As you can imagine, the people in the audience were thrilled to see him. Sporting a bright purple tie, President Clinton took the stage and delivered a beautiful and heart-felt speech. It was the first time I had seen him speak in person and I enjoyed it immensely.

President Clinton told about when he was about 17 years old sitting alone in his home in Arkansas watching Dr. King’s famous, “I Have a Dream Speech” and asking himself what he could do to be a part of the American King envisioned. Clinton reminded us how Dr. King spoke about how each one of us can be great through acts of service to others, and that even if you are a street sweeper your act of service is what truly makes you great.

Clinton said that throughout his political career he has often wondered, “What would Dr. King do?” When he was governor of Arkansas, a state that had the fewest number of African-Americans of all the southern states (just 14 percent), his cabinet was 50 percent African-American. When he was President of the US, he had the most diverse administration of all the previous presidents combined. He said he did it not for himself, but because of what Dr. King inspired him to do.

The day concluded with a rousing message from Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie, the first female bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. She was amazing and dared all of us to not only dream as Dr. King did but to also act on it. She reminded us of the game many of us played as children when we “dared” or “double-dared” someone to do something. She “double-dared” all of us to come back in one year a bigger and better version of ourselves.

Another message that came out of the celebration was the idea that to truly honor Dr. King we must do two things – we must give ourselves permission to dream and we must act from conscious.

A connection I made that I had never thought about before was how much Dr. King stood for non-violent change and living a non-violent life. I was thinking about how this could translate to our work-life, and how often people are treated in dehumanizing and violent ways at work all over the world.

So on this Martin Luther King Jr. 40th year celebration, let me add to the day my dream, because I have a dream also:

My dream is that one day ALL people may be able to work in a democratic workplace, whether it’s a non-profit organization, a government agency, or a Fortune 500 company.

To convey to you how I feel about this topic, I’ve taken some liberties to Dr. King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech and adapted in my own words as they related to building democratically-run companies. I hope you enjoy it:

My “I Have a Dream” Speech for the Democratic Workplace
by Traci Fenton (adapted from Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech August 28, 1963)

I have a dream that one day this nation (and world!) will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all workers are created equal.”

I have a dream that one day the current state of the corporation, an organization that is often in a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that one day my children will come to me and say, “You mean there was a time when all companies weren’t run democratically Mom?”

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day employees and managers, CEOs and the rank-and-file, will be able to join hands with each other in mutuality and respect.

I have a dream today.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go to the world with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair for so many employees a stone of hope.

With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our workplaces into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to create together, to struggle together, and succeed together knowing that we did so democratically.

This will be the day when all employees will be able to sing with a new meaning, “My company, ’tis of thee, sweet workplace of liberty, of thee I sing. Office where I lived my potential, office where I made a contribution, from every cubicle and desk, let freedom ring.”

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the businesses of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the companies on Wall Street in New York. Let freedom ring from Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the organizations in the Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the corporations in California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from the businesses of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from the non-profits of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every blue-collar worker in Mississippi.

From every cubicle, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every small business and every large enterprise, from every board room and every receptionist’s desk, 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!”