Columbus residents find MLK dream elusive despite first black president

The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., stood before an energized throng on Aug. 28, 1963, unveiling his vision for a post-racial America.

Forty five years later, Barack Obama — the biracial son of a white mother and African father — ascended to the highest office in the land, representing for some Americans what appeared to be the embodiment of King’s dream.

Now, as the nation’s first black president leaves office, Columbus residents have mixed feelings about the country’s current racial dynamics, and some wonder whether the gains made during the King era are in jeopardy.

Some point to President-elect Donald Trump’s call for a ban on Muslims entering the country and his disparaging remarks about Mexican immigrants as reasons for consternation. They also view some of Trump’s selections for cabinet posts and other positions as an affront to civil rights.

Of particular concern to many civil rights advocates is Trump’s appointment of Steve Bannon, former executive chair of a website associated with white supremacist ideology, as chief strategist and senior counselor to the president; and his nomination of Sen. Jeff Sessions, who has been accused of making racially offensive statements, as attorney general.

Ed DuBose, a Columbus resident and national NAACP board member, said he believes race relations have improved among average citizens, and younger Americans in particular. Yet, he’s concerned about the policies and rhetoric espoused by Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress intent on overturning Obama efforts such as the Affordable Health Care Act.

“This King holiday is different and significant in many ways,” DuBose said. “On one hand, you have the first African-American president in this country’s history transitioning out. And at the same time, during this historic holiday, you have this Congress, and the president-elect, and the people in power, vowing to turn back everything he’s done.

“So when you talk about, how is race relations? — well, you can see it very clearly among those who are in power and this rush to make his entire eight years of non-effect,” he said. “... Those in power have an agenda, clearly, to de-legitemize the first African-American president.”

DuBose, who is black, said he cried when Obama was first elected to office in 2008. He had his two-year-old granddaughter on his shoulder, and they celebrated the historic moment together.

“I’m of the Dr. King era, I was 10 years old when he was assassinated,” he said. “... And I’m not ashamed to tell you that I shed a tear (during President Obama’s) farewell speech because it’s kind of, for some of us, like something died in you watching him transition out. A part of you just went with him, and you could feel that he cared about this country.”

“If a man born of a white woman and a black man from both America and Africa couldn’t bring us together, who can?” he asked.

Others such as Brad Wheeler, a white businessman and Trump supporter, see things differently. Wheeler said he believes it’s time for the United States to move beyond race. That’s one of the reasons he was drawn to Trump’s message.

“I think we spend too much time talking about race,” he said. “I think we ought to be talking about building America, and that’s the wonderful thing about having a theme as Donald Trump chose.

“If you’re an American, you’re an American,” he said. “And if you’re not, and you’re just here visiting, you’re not an American. And we wouldn’t expect you to have the same views about our country. We should gravitate once again to an idea that we’re going to make America a better place together. I love that thought.”

Wheeler said there are black people who love white people, and white people who love black people. And those who don’t, they have a problem.

“You need to get on your knees and ask God to show it to you,” he said of those who harbor racist attitudes. “I think there are factions in our society who look for the worst in people and then they exploit that and blow it up in the media, and say this is how America is. It’s not that way. Those are usually the exception, not the rule, as I have seen it.”

At Christ Community Church, 4078 Milgen Road, pastors and church members have been intentional about trying to make King’s dream a reality. Last year, the congregation held a Converge Conference on Diversity and Unity at the Cunningham Center at Columbus State University. The event drew more than 300 people for workshops on improving race relations among people of faith.

The conference commenced under the leadership of the church’s lead pastor, Keith Cowart, who is white, and its executive pastor, Derrick Shields, who is black.

Cowart said he and his wife planted the church in their home over 18 years ago. The church began with three white couples, and is now a racially mixed congregation with a weekly attendance of about 1,000.

Cowart said he hasn’t always agreed with Obama’s policies, but the night that he was first elected, he and his wife were grateful that they lived at a time when a black man could be elected president of the United States. Yet, he believes the country has become more polarized over the years.

“I am very concerned about the dynamics in our nation around the issue of race,” he said. “We as Christians must be absolutely, radically committed to the truth that we are one in Christ and we need to, at this time in history, more than ever demonstrate that by the way we live.

“There are things in our country that are deeply concerning,” he said. “And we as God’s people must demonstrate through the way we live an alternative to the polarization that’s happening in our nation.”

Shields said the Converge conference was born out of a desire to fulfill Dr. King’s dream by unifying Christians of different backgrounds. He was in awe when President Obama was elected, he said, but it was like putting a Band-Aid on a wound that never healed.

“That Band-Aid has been ripped of, and with that being removed, it exposes that there’s a lot more work to be done if we have the courage to do it,” he said. “It’s easier to settle for what we have and where we are, for all parties. But I believe with all my heart that it’s more fulfilling for us to continue to strive to be more of one people than we are, because we’re still divided.

Shields said the group read a book titled, “Letters to a Birmingham Jail: A Response to the Words and Dreams of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,” published 50 years after King wrote his letter from a Birmingham jail.

“Our desire to be a diverse community is what spurred Converge and what keeps us pursuing better than what we have,” he said. “As a pastor, my heart is, ‘If it doesn’t happen in a faith context, how in the world can we expect it to happen anywhere else?’ And that’s where the separation is so obvious.

“...We don’t just want to settle on coming to church and spending a few hours on Sunday,” he said of his congregation. “We really want us to do life together.”

Shields said the Trump era may pose some challenges for people committed to unity and diversity, but he’s still optimistic that America can be the place that King dreamed it would be.

“I believe instead of us reacting to what we see in the heart of another and letting that separate us, that’s the prime opportunity for us to press in, and that’s what we need to do,” he said. “We’re committed to being intentional about diversity, because until we sit at each other’s table and talk to each other, we will never get past it.”

This story was originally published January 14, 2017 at 6:00 PM with the headline "Columbus residents find MLK dream elusive despite first black president."