What Dr. King can teach us today about healing the rifts in America

As the chaotic contest for House Speaker revealed, Washington today is consumed by political trench warfare. Beneath the ever-present battle between Republicans and Democrats is an even deeper split between those who believe in collaboration and those who think the only answer is to bulldoze the other side. That’s a shame, because what has become so clear to me during my six decades on the frontlines of the civil rights struggle is that real, durable progress only happens when Americans of goodwill speak to one another civilly and work collaboratively despite their differences. Unlike so many societies across human history, each of us in America should have the inalienable right to speak freely and openly, and to be able to disagree without the loss of civility. And that is among America’s greatest blessings.

We need to rediscover this element of the hallowed history of our nation. When Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963, I was there gazing up at him from just below the podium. Today, we remember that speech as a great catharsis—and it was. But we should also acknowledge that Dr. King wasn’t speaking that day exclusively to those of us who already knew him, or loved him, or shared his dream. His words were directed at Americans who didn’t agree with him—yet. The vision he painted with his words represented an effort to build a bridge to people who did not share his agenda. And that was intentional: He understood that speaking to people who held reservations about what our movement demanded marked the only realistic path toward our ultimate success.

Dr. King’s strategy worked. The Civil Rights Bill of 1964 passed the following year not because civil rights leaders vilified and castigated those outside our movement. It succeeded because liberals sought out the support of Senate Republicans—most specifically Illinois Sen. Everett Dirksen—who brought over enough Republican votes to overcome a southern filibuster. The Democratic leadership at the time—President Lyndon Johnson, Senate Democratic Leader Mike Mansfield (Mont.)—understood that collaborating with Dirksen was the key to victory. Think what that can teach us: What was perhaps the most important legislative achievement of the 20th century was born not from spewing vitriol at the other side but from a strategy that explicitly reflected Dr. King’s determination to have honest, open conversations with people who took a view different from his own. When the Voting Rights Act was passed the following year and the Fair Housing Act made its way through Congress in 1968, the same bipartisan approach prevailed.

Now, there are some today who would say that this kind of cooperation is the relic of a bygone era. They say the anger and distrust in our politics is so profound that we have reached a point of no return. I simply do not agree with that premise. On April 4, 1968, I was busy organizing people in North Carolina to prepare for a visit Dr. King was set to make to Charlotte the next day. But he never made it, having been assassinated while standing on the balcony of Memphis’ Lorraine Motel. If ever there was a moment to be overwhelmed by rage and pessimism, it was then. But I knew, because of what Dr. King had taught me, that vitriol was a dead end. And so I endeavored instead to continue on the path Dr. King had begun to forge. I still believe he had it right.

History may not repeat itself—but we can learn lessons from the past. America’s leaders must find their way back to the approach that once pointed us toward such profound bipartisan progress. That’s the path the American people want to travel. In a recent nationwide No Labels poll, 92 percent of Americans expressed gratitude for living in a country where people could openly disagree with one another. 89 percent believed we could solve most of our problems if leaders in both major parties tried to work together. 

Fortunately, some in Washington are holding a torch for Dr. King’s approach—and they are lighting the way forward. I look at groups like the Problem Solvers Caucus in the House and their allies in the Senate and see them engaged in the sorts of conversations Dr. King imagined all of us having when he spoke of the beloved community. They are holding fast to an old and timeless notion of what it means to be a leader, someone strong enough to listen to those who take a different point of view and to stand up to those who prefer vitriol to love. I look at them and I see courage, patriotism and wisdom. And I know that the message they offer is timeless: The way out of our current predicament is unity.

Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis, Jr. is national co chair of No Labels.