After the final meetings of the Constitutional Convention, September 17, 1787, Ben Franklin was asked (by Elizabeth Willing Powell, a politically active lady of Philadelphia), “What kind of government have we got, a monarchy or a republic?”
Famously, and wisely, Franklin replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
Franklin understood that this experiment in government by the people rested upon a delicate balance between its citizens and their elected leaders who were entrusted to keep intact the ideals of a free people. Its future success would demand constant vigilance and rebalancing.
Civil rights pioneer Martin Luther King Jr., understood this well. And he knew that a rebalancing and reckoning were one hundred years overdue. The slaves had been freed “on paper” by the Emancipation Proclamation, sealed by a bloody civil war. But in many ways black Americans were far from free.
There were far too many inequities to list them all here, but you can read about them in his famous, “I have a dream!” speech at the Lincoln Memorial, in Washington, D.C. in 1963. It tells you all you need to know about why a quarter of a million people heard it live, and why it has been ranked as the best speech of the twentieth century.
MLK appealed to the founders’ own words in creating our republic, and made a simple, but compelling, analogy: “We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we’ve come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.”
He was confident that if the founding documents were followed as they were written, the differences between the races could be settled by reasonable people enacting and obeying reasonable laws. He was merely asking that we practice what we preach, that justice be for all.
He added, “We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence.” He believed in order, not chaos.
Martin Luther King Jr.’s confidence in the republic reflected a deeper faith in God’s creating all men equal, and the founders’ good faith effort to embody the principles of compassionate, accountable leadership (e.g. 1 Kings 12:7 and Luke 22:25, 26) into the U. S. Constitution, flawed though it may be. That’s why it can be amended.
He sang the national anthem, honored the flag, and peacefully led the races to work together toward systemic justice for every person, without belittling another race or hiding behind a mask. Imagine. MLK knew the problem was not skin color, but the condition of the heart.
“Father, we thank you for allowing us to live in a nation which has welcomed all nations, and the diversity that has come into it. Help us to seek justice for every single individual, and to do so without intimidation or violence. In the name of Jesus. Amen.