How Much Progress? As long as some of us, stranded here on the crest of a new millennium, are still thinking in terms of the passage of time, here is a fact to arrest the mind: it has been a full third of a century since Dr. Martin Luther King was felled here by an assassin’s bullet. And in that longish span of time (almost as long as the man’s own abbreviated lifetime), what progress has been made on King’s two most cherished dreams? We say “two” dreams, because, even as early as Dr. King’s historic 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, the goal of economic equality was arguably as important to him as that of racial equality. And by the time of his death, when he was in Memphis to assist striking sanitation workers and deep into the planning of his proposed Poor People’s March on Washington, it was clearly his chief concern. So, how are we doing? On the score of racial equality, there has been measurable progress, both nationally and locally. As observers have noted, the chief reason why Vice President Al Gore has widespread African-American support for his current presidential bid is that (as even the current president’s numerous detractors would concede) the chief executive he serves, Bill Clinton, has, through his appointments and directives, brought about an astonishing measure of diversity in government. And it seems clear that, no matter who wins the presidency this year, the emblem of the old Confederacy — with all that it symbolizes — is on its way out, having already become a serious campaign issue. Interesting enough, the rebel flag has been banned — at least officially — from the athletic contests of our near neighbor, the once diehard University of Mississippi. And, though there is a fairly severe degree of racial polarization in local partisan politics — black Democrats vis-a-vis white Republicans — anyone who actually moves within the worlds of local government, business, and entertainment, and even within society at large, has to be impressed by the increasing amount of free and easy association in those spheres. Economics is another matter. Many have noted that, even in the midst of the current national prosperity, the gap between haves and have-nots persists and in some ways is even widening. Mayor Willie Herenton has observed the same thing locally and is on record as considering long-term class cleavage to be a more real and threatening prospect than racial disharmony. It will be remembered that Dr. King foresaw a day when his children, like those born from within all other strata of American life, could be judged solely by the “content of their character” — free from the outer world’s prior judgement based upon race or sex or other factors. Ironically enough, his own children in our time have themselves cast doubt upon their own characters by lending themselves to various self-aggrandizing commercial enterprises and shabby legal crusades that dishonor both the man and his memory. That we have almost reached the point of being able to say as much is in its own way a measure — curious but real and even satisfying — of our incremental progress toward realizing Dr. King’s goals.