To the Editor:
Last year, I read Martin Luther King Jr.’s book of sermons, “Strength of Love.” For Black History Month this February, I would like to quote from Dr. King’s sermon, Shattered Dreams.
“In a famous painting, George Frederick Watts portrays Hope as a tranquil figure who, seated atop our planet, her head bowed, plucks a single unbroken harp string. Is there any one of us who has not faced the agony of blasted hopes and shattered dreams?”
For Martin Luther King Day this year, another newspaper printed a photo of Reverend King standing at Chicken Bone Beach in Atlantic City, 1955. The beach was segregated. What a transformation of shattered dreams for civil rights and justice for blacks in this country these past 59 years!
After pulling out the book “Black Like Me” from my bookshelf, I would like to mention one more quote. This one is by the black poet, Langston Hughes, from “Dream Variation.”
“Rest at pale evening … A tall slim tree … Night coming tenderly – Black like me.”
It is night as I am writing this and I have faith in God that he trees outside my windows will shade the black man, woman and child in Cape May County like they shade me in the heat of a hot summer day.
Martin Luther King, Jr. and Langston Hughes are only two black writers. I remember that Patricia Hall (the Publisher’s wife) also likes the writings of Booker T. Washington. All three I would recommend for commemorating this year’s Black History Month.
Cape May – Governor Murphy says he doesn't know anything about the drones and doesn't know what they are doing but he does know that they are not dangerous. Does anyone feel better now?
