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Tuesday, July 11, 2006
King papers important for Gwinnett, too
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Shirley Franklin’s political savvy and leadership ability spill over into the entire Atlanta metro region.
Last February, in a speech to the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce, the Atlanta mayor addressed a capacity crowd of local business and political leaders about the need for a strong regional focus.
Franklin spoke about how Atlanta and metro counties, like Gwinnett, share natural resources of air and water — and, moreover, how we draw from the same labor pool.
Without being smug, Franklin knows that the prestige and attraction of her city has a lead role to play in forging the identity and the perceptions of the metro area and perhaps even the entire state.
That is why it is important, not just for Atlantans, but for all Georgians to celebrate Franklin’s recent success in putting together a rainbow-colored cadre of local business leaders to purchase the papers of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The King papers were purchased in late June for $32 million. The King children had placed their father’s papers with Sotheby’s in New York for auction.
This treasure trove of King’s papers and mementos includes drafts of his famous 1963 March on Washington speech as well as his 1964 Nobel Prize acceptance speech.
It is misguided to believe that the King collection is only important for Atlantans or black people or scholars.
King’s papers are something to be valued and shared by everyone who is committed to rid the world of the cancer of racism and chauvinism in all of its manifestations, the cancer that maims and murders human beings and dries up human potential.
That is why I am steadfast in my belief that Gwinnettians have ample reason to be joyful and proud in knowing the King papers will be housed in nearby Atlanta.
Gwinnett, like most of America has greatly improved in race relations, but the county still has a long way to go.
The minority population of Gwinnett that includes blacks, Asian-Americans and Latinos has grown exponentially over the last decade. Collectively, non-whites now make up 43 percent of the county’s population. But Gwinnett citizens of color have yet to effectively penetrate the vanguard of the existing political and business infrastructure of the county.
The recent faux pas by the library board regarding its Spanish fiction collection in part can be traced to a lack of racial and cultural sensitivity. Having board members who reflect the changing demographics of the county may have diverted them from making such a publicly embarrassing mistake of having elimated and later (to their credit) restoring the funding for Spanish-language reading materials.
Moreover, both the GOP and the Democrats in Gwinnett have tremendous opportunity for more diversity in recruiting, mentoring, and running candidates who reflect a multicultural county.
Although, Gwinnett is about 15 miles north of Atlanta, we are as distant as the North Pole when it comes to Atlanta’s more progressive and inclusive political climate (albeit often contentious). In Gwinnett we have yet to get the recipe right for the “primordial soup” that would enable our own needed version of Shirley Franklin to evolve.
I hope that Gwinnettians will visit, read and be inspired by the King papers.
Perhaps having the King papers in our midst and the outstanding example of regional leadership of Franklin will provide Gwinnett with the drive to move beyond its superficial racial diversity.
Gwinnett is a good place to live, but it will never truly be great until its growing minority population is sought out and welcomed as co-laborers in leading the county’s business and political communities.
In what ways you think the King papers are important for Gwinnettians?
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