2023-08-27 15:49:25
It seems like an irony of fate – or perfidious planning. As thousands gather in Washington on Saturday to mark the 60th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s legendary “I have a dream” speech, a white man shot dead three black people in a racially motivated hate crime in Jacksonville, Florida.
Gun homicides are commonplace in the US around 21,000 victims counted the US authorities for the year 2021. But Saturday’s act shows once again how far the country is from King’s dream becoming a reality.
He dreams of his four children living in a country “where they are not judged by the color of their skin but by the nature of their character”. King am 28. August 1968 vor dem Lincoln Memorial announced.
Racist hate crime
The openly racist motives of the alleged Jacksonville shooter come as a stark reality shock. He was “targeting a certain group of people, and they were black people,” said TK Waters, the city’s sheriff.
The man left several manifestos in which he described his “disgusting ideology of hate”. Jacksonville Mayor Donna Deegan said a swastika was emblazoned on one of his weapons.
Police officers cordon off the crime scene in Jacksonville, Florida after the three shooting murders. © dpa/John Raoux
The man, who was in his early 20s according to police, shot two women and a man in a supermarket near Edward Waters University, which is mostly attended by black students, and then himself.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who hails from Jacksonville, strongly condemned the crime. The Republican, who is currently running for his party’s candidacy for the 2024 US presidential election, described the alleged perpetrator as a “scumbag” and “coward”.
60 years after the March on Washington Black history is now
Racism is the majority motive of the approximately 7,300 hate crimes registered by the FBI in 2021. And it’s not just violence that keeps King’s dream alive to this day. Discrimination against black people is reflected in almost all areas of life in the USA.
Existing Discrimination
Even though indicators such as life expectancy and unemployment have clearly improved over the past few years, blacks are still far worse off than whites. This is particularly striking when it comes to poverty: Almost 20 percent of black people were living in poverty in 2021, according to government figures, while the figure was only around eight percent for whites.
Dad would probably say now is the time. We must preserve, protect and expand our democracy.
Martin Luther King IIIson of the legendary civil rights activist
Combating poverty was one of the central demands of the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” on August 28, 1963, for which Martin Luther King and his comrades-in-arms mobilized around 250,000 people. It was the largest rally in US history up to that point.
Kings „I have a dream“-Rede, which he held in front of the Lincoln Memorial at the end of the march, is considered a key moment in the American civil rights movement. King, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, was assassinated in 1968.
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Much has been achieved in recent decades, said Martin Luther King III, the son of the legendary civil rights activist, on Saturday in Washington. But he was very concerned about the course the US had taken. “Dad would probably say now is the time. We must preserve, protect and expand our democracy,” he emphasized in his speech.
America is at a crossroads, said House Democrat leader Hakeem Jeffries.
US President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will attend a ceremony on Monday, August 28, the actual anniversary of the March on Washington.
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