Two events are sometimes sufficient to draw an arc through history. For me, prior to November 4th, the death of Dr. M. L. King marked a point of despair and hopelessness in American history. It marked the end of the organized, non-violent struggle for social and civic justice. The attached picture, just moments before Dr. King's death, shows hope, leadership, and promise in the faces of Dr. King and his key aides. It is the one I think of when I think of Dr. King's death.
On the night of November 4th, 2008, Dr. King's death was transformed into something different for me. It marked another beginning, a realization of Dr. King's dream. Dr. King's vocation to live and nurture the Christian social gospel planted seeds of hope throughout the country, one of which blossomed the night of the 4th.
For those who worked with Dr. King, seeing President-Elect Obama must have been ineffably fulfilling, an unimaginable reward for often thankless labor. Perhaps no image captured the toll of that struggle or completed the historical arc more clearly than Rev. Jesse Jackson's tears.
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