When Dr. King spoke in front of the Lincoln Memorial 50 years ago, I listened
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EL PASO – I was there 50 years ago on the Washington, D.C., Mall when Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., standing in front of the Lincoln Monument challenged the conscience of America with four words, “I have a dream.”
That was also the beginning of my understanding of the black experience in America. A child of the capital’s white Maryland suburbs, I had just graduated from high school. There were only two African American students in my class. I had a summer job at the famous Discount Records and Books store near Dupont Circle owned by Bob Bialek, busting boxes in the basement for 30 cents an hour. Bialek was my dad’s childhood friend.