Dear Friends of Chautauqua, 

We remember with sadness and hope on this day the significance of “Juneteenth”, when on June 19, 1865, federal troops arrived in Galveston Bay, Texas to announce to the more than 250,000 enslaved black people in the state that they were freed by executive decree. Although President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation was intended to free all enslaved persons as of January 1, 1863, it could not be implemented in places still under Confederate control. Thus, it would take two and half years for freedom to finally come to the westernmost Confederate state of Texas. 

And yet…freedom did not fully arrive for black Americans. Our nation has struggled since those 19^th Century announcements of equality and freedom to make them a reality for everyone, even now well into the 21^st Century. 

Our commemoration of this federal holiday should cause us to remember how costly that long struggle for freedom has been. One hundred years after the first Juneteenth, on a hot humid summer day in the nation’s capital, a young preacher walked up to the podium on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963 to give voice to the hopes and dreams of millions of disenfranchised Americans to live and work in dignity. He had a manuscript from which he read dutifully, until midway during the speech he heard the angelic voice of someone behind him imploring him to go beyond his prepared text, to give his hearers a verbal picture of what was welling up in his mind’s eye. The angel over his shoulder was none other than Mahalia Jackson, the renowned opera singer, who in a moment of inspired courage shouted out to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. these words: 

“Tell ’em about the dream, Martin…tell ’em about the dream!” 

What followed were words that not only transfixed that multiracial and interfaith crowd of over a quarter million people gathered on the National Mall, but they have become a kind of national sermon for generations of Americans who long to see God’s vision of the beloved community here on earth. 

I say to you today, my friends, even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream…..I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up, live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all [people] are created equal.” 

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. 

I have a dream today…..I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low. The rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the south with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood [the human family]. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. 

Let freedom ring…When we allow freedom to ring—when we let it ring from every city and every hamlet, from every state and every city. We will be able to speed up that day when all of God’s children, black men [and women] and white men [and women], Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last, Free at last, thank God almighty, we are free at last.” 

(Excerpts from the “I Have a Dream” Speech by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC, on August 28, 1963) 

What has become of Martin’s dream today? That vision for our nation was nurtured by Dr. King’s faith in God; he learned it from years of hearing and studying the holy scriptures, from reflecting on the Hebrew prophets and on the life and ministry of Jesus, and from committing himself to fearlessly living out the Biblical mandates for love, reconciliation and justice. Those who gathered at the March on Washington in 1963 were committed to these values, and together they formed a nonviolent army of witnesses of “God’s Truth Marching On” in the face of hatred, bigotry and violence. I wonder if our nation still has the clarity of vision and spiritual fortitude to recommit to these same truths today? 

On April 4, 1968, less than five years after giving his speech, Martin Luther King, Jr. was gunned down in Memphis, TN. Inscribed on the plaque affixed to the railing at the Lorraine Motel where he was assassinated are these words based on Genesis 37:20: “And they said one to another, behold, this dreamer cometh. Come now therefore, and let us slay him… and we shall see what will become of his dreams.” (KJV)   

I do not believe that Martin’s dream died with him on that fateful day. Killing prophets has never silenced divine messages of justice, compassion and peace. 

The question before us today, then, is what will we do with the dream? Our answers to that question have to be expressed in our minds, in our hearts, and in our hands by our actions. I call upon everyone in the wider Chautauqua community to pause and take some moments this day to reflect upon the words of the “I Have a Dream” speech which have now been grafted into the collective soul of this country and around the world. I especially invite you to consider taking two minutes for silent reflection at 12 Noon today, and if you are religious let us collectively offer those silent reflections as prayers… 

…of confession, for our continued inability as individuals and as a nation to fully realize the dream as so eloquently given to us by our brother, Martin. 

…of thanksgiving, for the real progress that our nation has made in the years since Martin’s death to continue his vision and work, and 

…of commitment, for our resolve as individuals and as the Chautauqua community to stand up to bigotry, institutional racism, and injustice whenever and wherever they may be found. 

Let us not fail today to look inside of our hearts and minds to reflect on Juneteenth’s promise of freedom, to remember the MLK’s dream of a just society, and to rededicate ourselves to Chautauqua’s mission of “exploring the best in human values and the enrichment of life” for everyone – no exceptions. 

In so doing, we’ll see that the dream still lives. 

Eugene 

The Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton 
Senior Pastor, Chautauqua Institution