2006 Choral Arts Humanitarian Award Acceptance Speech - Jan. 08, 2006

I am so honored by this honor, and to follow anywhere in the footsteps of Dr. Dorothy Irene Height, who’s been my great mentor. And I want to thank Maxine Baker from the Freddie Mac Foundation, who personifies caring and strategic corporate philanthropy. Thank you, Maxine, for your leadership.

I first met and heard Dr. King on April 10th, 1960 at Spelman in Spelman College’s Sisters Chapel. And three of his lessons branded themselves in my mind and in my heart. He talked about the importance of faith, about having the courage to take the first step. Even if you couldn’t see the whole stairway, we were still obligated to take that step for justice and righteousness and leave the results to God. We need to get that faith back today. The second lesson I remember was about his call for action and the need for movement. He said, “Don’t ever stop moving.” If you can’t fly, drive. If you can’t drive, run. If you can’t run, walk. And if you can’t walk, crawl, but keep moving. And it’s time, folks, for us to build a movement to end shameful child poverty in America.

And the third lesson he taught the Spelman girls that morning, which he tried to teach our country, was the importance of love, a big love that could encompass everybody, including our enemies, which is why he called for nonviolent action. And he really said that if we love all people as God’s children and all children as God’s children, that we could transform the world. And he set about trying to do that.

And on this wonderful honor of an occasion, I hope that we will commit to finishing Dr. King’s dream. More of us would rather celebrate him than follow him. He’s not coming back. We’re it. And we’ve got to get about the business of finishing the job he began.

So, I want to end with a prayer by my friend Ana Hughes, because our big problem in this rich nation is that we make a distinction between our children and other people’s children. All children belong to God. Every child is sacred. Every child deserves the American dream as a reality.

And so I hope we will think about what we will do to build that movement for children and to answer the call of our children. And to commit this evening to praying and accepting responsibility for children who sneak popsicles before supper, erase holes in math workbooks and can never find their shoes. But I hope we will also pray and accept responsibility and stand up for children who can’t bound down the streets in a new pair of sneakers, who were born in places we wouldn’t be caught dead, who never go to the circus, who live in an X-rated world. Let’s commit to praying and standing for children who bring us sticky kisses and hug us in a hurry and, against their luck, forget their lunch money. But let’s also pray and stand up for children who never get dessert, who don’t have any rooms to clean up, whose pictures aren’t on anybody’s dresser, and whose monsters are real. Let’s honor Dr. King by praying and accepting responsibility for children who spend all of their allowance before Tuesday, throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food, who love ghost stories, shove dirty clothes under the bed and never run out the tub. Who get visits from the tooth fairy, who don’t like to be kissed in front of the car pool, who squirm at church or temple and mosque and scream on the phone. Whose tears we sometimes laugh at, and whose smiles can make us pray. But let’s also pray and accept responsibility and honor Dr. King by accepting responsibility for those children whose nightmares come in the daytime, who will eat anything, who’ve never seen a dentist or a doctor, who aren’t spoiled by anybody, who go to bed hungry in this rich land and cry themselves to sleep.

Let’s commit, and honor Dr. King by standing up for and accepting responsibility for children who have to be carried, but also children who want to be carried. But let’s give the voice for children we never give up on, but also for those children who don’t get a second chance. Let’s build a movement for children whom we smother, our own, and those who will grab the hand of anyone kind enough to offer it. Let’s do what Dr. King asked us to do. Let us build a movement where no child, nobody, is left behind in this rich nation. Thank you. Save the future.

Edelman, M. W. (2006, January 8). Speech at the 18th annual Choral Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [Transcript]. The Choral Arts Society of Washington. https://choralarts.org/marianwrightedelman/