Contact: Jessica Davis, SIU School of Law, 618-453-8135

OPINION, Jan. 8 /Standard Newswire/ -- The following is submitted for publication.  Jessica Davis is also available for comment.

The Pursuit of Human Dignity

As I reflect on a general for justice, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in my life's story and the legacy he left for this generation and the generations to follow, I also began to think about another general for justice. I reflected on the Reverend Ida McNeil Davis, and the legacy she left as well. Ida McNeil Davis is my mother. She took her last breath on January 15, 2002 in the same way she took her first breath on July 16, 1930.

As you know January 15th is the birthday of Dr. King. He took his first breath on January 15, 1929. My mother, Reverend Ida Davis, was not only the mother of seven children, but she also represents the mothers of the struggle for justice in America's history who grew up in the segregated south. I can share this reflection today from the desk of a law school office because of her "dream being deeply rooted in the American dream," a statement so eloquently articulated by Dr. King.

On July 16, 1930, Linus and Nellie McNeil became the proud parents of Ida McNeil in Lillington, North Carolina. Because her father died prematurely and her mother had to work as a housekeeper to survive, my grandmother, Nellie, sent my mother to live with her father, Marshall McNeil. My great-grandfather was a sharecropper. Yes, I am the great- granddaughter of a sharecropper. Let us never forget the struggle or we indeed will be destined to repeat it.

For those of you who may not know the role of the sharecropper in America's history, let me help you. My great-grandfather did not receive his mule and forty acres of land. Great-grandfather Marshall lived on and harvested the land for a landowner who benefited from the legacy of slave ownership. Yes, my great-grandfather would never own his land. Sharecropper is another word for indentured servitude.

My mother grew up in the segregated South. When she graduated from Harnett County High School in Dunn, North Carolina, she was offered a housekeeping job as her graduation gift. This was a great achievement in an environment of many obstacles and at this point in history. Today, in many of our urban and rural communities, young men and women are facing similar or identical obstacles.

An educated housekeeper in the 1940's in the south was an invaluable commodity. My mother breached the visible and invisible social constraints of her time, and said, "No, I am moving north and going to college." She packed her one suitcase and moved to Baltimore, Maryland. She joined the migration of African Americans from the south to the north in pursuit of human dignity, human potential, and social justice.

The pursuits of these two great generals and others in my life's story for human dignity, human potential, and social justice lead me to this moment in time today. I am compelled today by their pursuits and legacies to sound the shofar of justice and write to America that America will never be the America she so desires to be until she moves from keeping Dr. King's Dream alive to fulfilling the Dream.

So I am writing to say to you, America, about not only keeping the Dream alive of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., but to say it is now time to fulfill the Dream. Let us never forget that we are standing on the shoulders of men, women, boys, and girls who suffered and died for the pursuit of the goals of Dr. King's Dream, the pursuit of dignity, human potential, and social justice that is deeply rooted in the "American Dream." We cannot let their deaths ever be in vain.

Each person must take responsibility for the destiny of America. There are those who say we have come a long way. Yes, I would agree. The fact that I am sharing this reflection today in celebration of the life of one of America's greatest generals for justice as a thirty-eight year old African-American professional woman reared in Baltimore City validates the progress this nation has made since 1619 when the first slaves arrived in the now known state of Virginia.

Dr. King is speaking today to us through his pursuits and legacy of justice. I believe he is saying, "We must hold each other responsible for the destiny of America, because she is waiting for the Dream to be fulfilled." In 1958, Dr. King said in his book, Stride Toward Freedom, that all life is interrelated. He also said, "All humanity is involved in a single process, and all men are brothers. To the degree that I harm my brother, no matter what he is doing to me, to that extent I am harming myself." He adds by saying, "If you harm me, you harm yourself." My brothers and sisters, the Dream must be fulfilled. Because of the interrelatedness of humanity as so eloquently described by Dr. King, if one of our children suffers, all of our children suffer. For America to be the America that she so desires to be, all of America must take responsibility and sit at the table of injustice until it becomes the table of justice for all. God bless America.

Jessica Davis, M.Div., J.D., D.Min.

Author, Appalachian Social Justice

www.belovednation.com