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King Would Relish Today's Challenges

40 years after civil-rights leader's death, Jesse Jackson finds message undimmed

By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff

Posted Apr 3, 2008 5:10 PM CDT
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(Newser) – With tomorrow marking the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination, the Rev. Jesse Jackson pens an appreciation for the New York Daily News. Jackson worked with the civil-rights giant in 1968 on King's last, tragically unfulfilled project, the Poor People’s Campaign. "He'd keep on dreaming and organizing," Jackson writes of King, were he still alive today.

Jackson reminds us that while King's “dream” is most remembered, the Poor People’s Campaign was to have been “a journey for concrete, measurable racial and economic equality,” focusing on goals like universal health care. Jackson thinks King would continue the fight for education and health care, and would’ve push for Iraq war funds to be redirected to the war on poverty.

The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tenn. depicts the 1968 sanitation workers' strike with a display, Tuesday, March 25, 2008.
The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tenn. depicts the 1968 sanitation workers' strike with a display, Tuesday, March 25, 2008.   (AP Photo/Greg Campbell)
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., left, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson are seen at the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Awards Breakfast in Chicago in this Jan. 15, 2007 file photo.
Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., left, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson are seen at the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Awards Breakfast in Chicago in this Jan. 15, 2007...   (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
The Reverend Jesse Jackson delivers remarks on the 15 of January 2008.
The Reverend Jesse Jackson delivers remarks on the 15 of January 2008.   (Getty Images)
A wreath marks the location where Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot to death on the second floor of the Lorraine Hotel, now part of the National Civil Rights Museum, April 3, '08 in Memphis, Tennessee.
A wreath marks the location where Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot to death on the second floor of the Lorraine Hotel, now part of the National Civil Rights Museum, April 3, '08 in Memphis, Tennessee.   ((Win McNamee/Getty Images))
Joe Warren, 86, in Memphis, Tenn. March 20, 2008, recalling the sanitation workers' strike of 1968 that brought Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to Memphis, where he was assasinated on April 4, 1968.
Joe Warren, 86, in Memphis, Tenn. March 20, 2008, recalling the sanitation workers' strike of 1968 that brought Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to Memphis, where he was assasinated on April 4, 1968.   (AP Photo/Greg Campbell)
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US • Health

 
education • race • Jesse Jackson • African Americans • assassination • Martin Luther King Jr. • health care reform

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