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LELAND ACKER chreporter@mediactr.com
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. opened his "I Have a Dream" speech with those prophetic words. Monday, we observed a holiday honoring his legacy, but what is that legacy?

To understand Dr. King's legacy, we would have to understand the context in which the speech was given. That context may well be remembered by those who lived through it. For one who was born in the late 1970s, some of the facts from the Jim Crowe era seem unbelievable.

The racism against African Americans was real and institutional in that day. The list of offenses is too long for me to list in this space.

President Kennedy, in 1963, proposed civil rights legislation. That legislation was blocked in committee by Southern Democrats.

So, to build momentum for that legislation, A. Philip Randolph organized the March on Washington and Dr. King was invited to speak.

Planning just to give a simple speech, Dr. King let loose when Mahalia Jackson encouraged him to share his dream. I encourage you to read Dr. King's "I Have a Dream" speech at http:// usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/ facts/democrac/38.htm.

Dr. King expressed his hopes that his children would be judged by the content of their character, not their skin color. His dream was that one day, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners could "sit down at the table of brotherhood."

Dr. King's dream, as expressed in this speech, is moral, ethical and even BIBLICAL.

In Romans 1:14, Paul wrote that he was called to minister to all people when he wrote, "I am debtor both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians."

Romans 2:11 says "For there is no respect of persons with God," meaning that God does not judge on heritage or ethnicity.

Romans 3:9, "What then? Are we better than they? No, in no wise. For we have before proved, both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin."

Galatians 2:28, "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for we are all one in Christ Jesus."

Racism is a sin. Those who use and have used the scriptures to teach segregation are teaching false doctrine. In my house, we believe in more than racial tolerance. We believe in racial acceptance.