We are eternal optimists. As civil rights leaders, we have to be. Our work on behalf of millions of underrepresented Americans demands it. Generationally, we’re products of Martin Luther King’s vision of hope and change, undergirded by a decade of landmark legislation during his short life. So it’s natural for us to live by Dr. King’s argument that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
That optimism is now being tested as never before in our lifetimes. We fear America is moving into a dark and divisive period, driven by political forces that seek to find tomorrow in yesterday.
