“It is precisely because education is the road to equality and citizenship, that it has been made more elusive for Negroes than many other rights. The walling off of Negroes from equal education is part of the historical design to submerge him in second class status. Therefore, as Negroes have struggled to be free they have had to fight for the opportunity for a decent education.”

... words that can apply to any of a number of groups that those in power have attempted to religate to second class citizenship...

Indeed Reston - the premise is simple; keep the people dumb and they will follow who ever leads them regardless of the truth.

it is well written.

It's a historical design because the aristocracy has from the beginning walled off ALL the people from the real truth of history and of knowledge to keep the mass in ignorance and poor as dirt. It's been so effective that the brainwashed mass accepts its condition and doesn't even fight to remedy it.

MLK was right; HOWEVER, if the 'education' is still delivered from an autocracy, what will the people learn? We must take responsibiltity to keep learning beyond what the State 'teaches' us.

MLK could speak those same words today and have them apply to all races. I think we have indeed achieved equality and then some...children of all races are being equally stupefied. Indoctrinated...not educated.

and four stars to the comments.

The Feds used this as an excuse to bring local education under Supreme Court and federal law. All may be getting equal education now, but is it any good?

Said well and is true of any group subdued. Now, instead of raising the bar of education to help the minority, the bar has been lowered to hinder the majority.

The more we become literate the more they become illiterate - and that my dear friends is the whole story.

The King family is one of the greatest families of our time. They have instilled within us the value of a solitary life and that talk is cheap unless it is followed up with non-violent aggressive loving action. With this struggle as their goal they have changed our world.

In cities of the antebellum south it was codified that a slave was not allowed "to think". How can a being who is not allowed to think be allowed education.

Martin Luther King was not a civil rights leader in as much as he was a crusader for equal rights of all. I only wish that all would study his speeches and see how they apply to all. RIP MLK

Oh Waffler, never forget the north was built on slave labor too. Never forget that Lincoln did not mention the slaves of the north in the emancipation proclamation. Nor do you mention that escaped slaves moving north were granted freedom only after serving a year in the Union Army...where they were used as cannon fodder... There you go again, perpetuating myths.

I wonder how MLK would respond to today's 'people of color' (i.e. colored people) demanding segregation from whites in their schools...  This is what it has come to.