MLK Week: The Power of Youth

Veteran civil rights activist Marian Wright Edelman exhorted a crowd of more than 1,000 at Duke Chapel to follow the example of her friend, the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., to build a "healthier" United States for children and their families.

"Children are a metaphor for the next transformative movement in our country, and the time for action is now," Edelman said at the annual MLK Commemorative Service on Sunday, which highlighted a series of events themed "The Power of Youth."

"You can't help children without helping families," said Edelman, a civil rights attorney and president of the Children's Defense Fund. "You can't help families without changing communities, and you can't change communities without changing public policy. If a child is safe and healthy, we'll all be healthy. -- We must act together with urgency to reset our nation's moral compass."

In a speech filled with statistics about disparities in health, education, economics and justice for the poor and disadvantaged, Edelman said that King's decades-old warnings to the nation about the "invisibility" of these groups are "as prescient as ever."

Around 36 million Americans -- 9.4 million of whom are children -- live in poverty today, she added. "But it's not really about poverty; we have the technology and the resources to get rid of poverty. The question we must ask ourselves as individuals and as a nation is: do we have the will" to do so?

"Many Americans would rather celebrate Dr. King than follow him," said Edelman, who worked as counsel for King's Poor People's Campaign. "But we must follow his example. He didn't have all the answers, and yes, his heart broke -- but he never got paralyzed by it."

This year also marks the 40th year since King's assassination on April 4, 1968. Edelman recalled the reaction of children and young people to that seminal event.

"I went into the violence-torn streets of Atlanta after the assassination to talk to the children and youths, to ask them not to riot, loot or do anything that would negatively affect their futures," she said. An angry 13-year-old boy responded: "Lady, what future? I ain't got no future."

"I've spent the last 40 years of my life trying to prove him wrong, and I'll continue to try for the rest of my life," said Edelman, a recipient of the Presidential Medal of Honor and founder of the Children's Defense Fund in 1973.

Though she believes King would be "appalled" by the disproportionate number of black and Latino men in prison in the United States, and "the violent war of America's people against each other," Edelman said she's certain that King would find much to be proud of today. This includes the contributions of people such as golfer Tiger Woods, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick, and presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, she said.

"All the statistics I've shared today are not acts of God, they're human activities," she said, urging her listeners to vote and hold elected officials accountable for their actions, or lack of action. She rejected the view that America "can't afford" healthcare for all children and other assistance for the disadvantaged. "We don't have a money problem in America, we have a profound values problem in America. -- "

"And for those of you who are waiting for Dr. King to come back," she said with a smile, "he's not coming, so we might as well get ourselves together and go about the business of getting justice for our children and our poor."

Edelman received a standing ovation from the crowd, which included Duke President Richard Brodhead, who described the annual MLK event as "one of the most powerful experiences" he's had at the university.

"Dr. King did so much for black people that it makes me want to give back to my community, too, and to take advantage every day of what he and others did for us," said Erica Nails, 15, of Durham.