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Remarks of Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz at
2002 Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Celebration

Brooklyn Academy of Music

Hello Brooklyn.

I am delighted to join you today, to honor the spirit and celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King, Junior, one of the most important influences in my life.

Now, I know what you’re thinking.

You look at me and you want to know "how can a short, white middle-aged, Brooklyn politician have the chutzpah to call America's foremost civil rights hero one of his most important influences?"

Well, what can I say? Looks are deceiving – and especially in my case!

In truth, though, Doctor King and the ideals he fought for continue to shape my thinking about virtually every important issue we face in the world today, and especially about my own work and responsibilities as a public servant.

Doctor King often said that, quote – "Freedom is participation in power."

Because Doctor King challenged the national practice of barring African-Americans from the halls of power, Lloyd Sealy was able become the first African-American police officer to command the Brooklyn North Patrol.

Ed Towns was able to serve as Brooklyn's first black Deputy Borough President.

Another Brooklynite, Mary Pinkett, was able to become the first African-American woman on the New York City Council.

And we were able to send Shirley Chisholm to represent Brooklyn in Congress. Later, she ran for President of the United States.

As a result of Doctor King’s challenge, today African-Americans in Brooklyn are fairly represented in city, state and federal government – and are no longer subject to laws that they had no role in writing.

That is real progress.

That is real achievement, of which we can all be proud.

And that’s what Doctor King’s dream was about – creating an inclusive society.

If it were not for progress in creating that society, Brooklyn would not be the thriving, vibrant borough that it is today,

Because our diversity is a fundamental part of Brooklyn's character –

It’s one of the things that truly makes us different from other places -- and one of the things that makes us truly great.

Since Brooklyn's earliest days, people of African descent have had a central role in shaping its character, even when their contributions were not acknowledged.

In colonial Brooklyn, as elsewhere, African slaves did just about every type of work that the British colonies and later, the new nation, needed done in order to survive and prosper.

The medicinal knowledge of slaves was relied on to care for the sick.

Their agricultural and animal husbandry skills kept food on the table.

The labor of slaves supported small businesses and merchants, and was used to fight fires, construct buildings, craft furnishings, prepare meals and preserve food.

Black people also played a crucial role in the founding of this nation, as soldiers in the war for independence.

More than five thousand people of African descent served in General Washington’s revolutionary army, in what would be this nation’s last integrated military units for more than one hundred and fifty years – until the Korean War.

Many of these black revolutionary soldiers believed that the ideals of liberty and freedom espoused by the American rebels would lead to the end of slavery in the newly-founded nation.

But, as we know, this was not to be the case.

In seventeen-ninety, eight years after the official end of the American Revolution, Brooklyn was the largest slaveholding county in New York State.

Today our borough is known as the home of large vibrant African-American and Caribbean-American communities –

Communities that exemplify and celebrate the achievements of black people here in the United States, and throughout the world.

Today in Brooklyn we celebrate the fact that free blacks – black teachers and laborers, farmers and businessmen -- were also among the earliest residents of this great borough.

And we also celebrate the more recent accomplishments of Brooklynites like the late Hattie Carthan, whose quest to save a beautiful old Brooklyn tree led to the founding of the Magnolia Tree Earth Center.

Hattie’s legacy is the hundreds of Brooklyn children who plant trees in Bedford Stuyvesant each year, and attend the center’s many educational and advocacy programs.

Thanks to Joan Maynard -- another outstanding Brooklynite of African descent – we can walk through the restored buildings and along the paths of Weeksville, and imagine life in a free black Brooklyn community almost two centuries ago.

Today we can trace the history of Brooklyn's black churches – among the largest in America -- which for generations have led their members to strive for spiritual, social, and political freedom.

We can trace the history of black schools, and the many businesses founded by African- Americans.

We can go to the Brooklyn Public Library and learn about black unions, black missionary societies, trade associations, and political clubs interwoven with the history of this borough.

We can read the history of Brooklyn's black society, stretching back to the early part of the nineteenth century – a society marked by vibrant theaters, literary groups, opera clubs and sports leagues.

Today, Brooklyn is a better place because of Doctor King and the Civil Rights movement.

Thanks to five decades of social and legal challenges to discrimination, -- race, ethnic origin, and gender are no longer the absolute barriers to achievement that they once were.

And every resident of this city and this nation, no matter what their race or ethnic background, has benefited from the removal of those barriers.

In 1964, Doctor King received the Nobel Peace Prize in Norway with these words. Quote – "I accept this award with an abiding faith in America, and an audacious faith in the future of mankind.

"I have the audacity to believe that people everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality and freedom for their spirits."

Doctor King opened up the possibility of achieving that audacious dream by challenging America to become a greater nation -- by creating a society where all people are allowed to reach the zenith of their potential.

Today, we are a nation immeasurably enriched by the contributions of outstanding men and women of African descent.

Think for a moment of the enormous accomplishments of African-Americans in the fields of law, government, science, business, the arts, entertainment, and in every segment of our society.

Consider the influence of the children of the African Diaspora on American cuisine, American design, values, philosophy and architecture.

Then consider what our country would be like if all of that were taken away.

What a poorer nation this would be.

And what a poorer Brooklyn.

Of course, we have much work ahead of us.

But because of Doctor King, and because of those here in Brooklyn and throughout the nation who continue to believe in his audacious dream, today we continue to progress – together -- toward a more inclusive, better, more open and more just society.

And because of Doctor King, today we all share in the cultural wealth, the exuberance, experience and community spirit, not only of Brooklynites of African descent, but of all the many nations represented among our residents – those here for generations and those newly arrived -- who make Brooklyn the gateway to America.

Because if you make it in Brooklyn you’ve already made it to the top.

And if you make it in Brooklyn, you can make it anywhere.

Thank you.