Martin Luther King* (+ photo) – Prensa Latina

Quinto Lucas**, collaborator with Prensa Latina

The song is called Mississippi Damn and has been sung in many parades across the United States. Nina Simone left the United States in 1969, after the assassination of Luther King, fed up with persecution and racism against African Americans.

Martin Luther King’s path was the path of the black American people’s struggle for civil rights. His steps in the path of freedom and rights marked the path of a people who are still forgotten.

Impunity today is the result of impunity yesterday. Today’s civil rights struggles are part of the fabric of struggles built over decades. Today’s marches and marching feet are part of those marches that demanded justice.

“Today I have a dream. I dream that one day, on the red hills of Georgia, the children of former slaves and the children of former slave owners can sit together at the table of brotherhood. I dream that one day even Mississippi, a state that simmers in the heat of injustice and oppression It will become an oasis of freedom and justice. Martin Luther King said: “I dream that one day my four children will live in a country where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the traits of their character.”

These words are still a dream. Selma is a film that tells part of this dream. In the film, the saying is heard, “What happens when a man stands up and says enough is enough?” We can ask ourselves: What happens when the people stand up and say enough is enough?

Every end can be a beginning. Salma is a way to bring back this dream. However, every time we come back, we start over. And now we can do it from Colombia, where they continue to search for ways to peace.

rmh/kt

*From his book My Journey to Ithaca

** Ecuadorian-Uruguayan journalist, writer and politician (taken from selected signatures)