In 1967, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. posed a question: Will we descend into chaos or will we build a beloved community? He asked it in the final years of his life, as he watched the movement fracture and the backlash intensify, when many had lost faith that America could be redeemed.
More than 50 years later, that question remains painfully relevant.
Last week, President Donald Trump made public remarks attempting to distort civil rights, falsely alleging that white Americans are now the real victims of discrimination. This dangerous narrative ignores the lived experiences of communities affected by systemic discrimination and seeks to justify rolling back hard-fought and hard-won civil rights protections.
Over the last year, this federal administration has repeatedly disregarded the rule of law, infringed on our civil rights and threatened our democracy — engaging in violent and sometimes fatal immigration enforcement tactics, unlawfully targeting naturalized citizens and their right to vote, dismantling the U.S. Department of Education, and threatening nonprofits and anyone who appears as if they may dissent.
And on this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we are reminded of the Trump administration’s attempts to undermine this day of remembrance by publicly attacking the legacy of the Rev. King, including by recently dropping this federal holiday — alongside Juneteenth — from the calendar of free days for national parks.
These actions certainly are disrespectful to King, our nation’s Civil Rights Movement, and its contributions to who we are today. But they are more than that. They are an attempt to erase the truth of our nation’s history and the truth about civil rights: that civil rights protections prohibit discrimination so that everyone benefits, everyone belongs and everyone is protected from unchecked abuses of power.
Authoritarianism thrives when people are isolated and disconnected. That is why, in the face of these actions, building a beloved community is no longer a question but a necessary condition for our country, and our democracy, to survive.
Civil rights organizations are the infrastructure of a beloved community. We translate the moral urgency of belonging into enforceable rights — the courtroom victories, policy changes and legal protections that ensure everyone can actually participate in the community we’re building together.
Building a beloved community requires courage, connection and compassion. Most of all, it requires forgiveness and faith: forgiveness for all of the known and unknown suffering we have caused one another and faith that we are stronger together than apart. But a beloved community is not just a disposition — it is a practice. It requires the slow, hard work of standing with those who have been most harmed by systems that were never designed for them — and then holding those systems accountable.
This moment makes that work more urgent than ever. My organization, Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, has been working for decades alongside our partners to build the beloved community required to truly achieve racial justice and build systems that serve every person in our multiracial democracy. It means showing up alongside parents fighting for fully funded public schools, eligible voters facing barriers at the ballot box, renters facing unlawful discrimination and communities affected by economic inequities. It means partnering with law firm partners and pro bono attorneys and leveraging the power of the private bar to protect and advance the fight for civil rights.
These connections to each other — to our beloved community — are the key to how we are going to fight back against the gargantuan efforts to dismantle our civil rights and strip us of what we have gained. We cannot do this in isolation from each other or without knowing what the impact on the ground is from those closest to the pain this administration is inflicting.
Our community partners across Illinois and Indiana fight with us to ensure people can exercise their fundamental right to vote, file litigation with us to challenge federal overreach and show up for community members when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are endangering our neighborhoods.
Our collective wisdom and action make us all stronger. Only together can we move forward to hold people in power accountable and push them to build toward our collective dreams, not just taking advantage of our fears.
Recognizing our interconnectedness and humanity is exactly what King envisioned when he spoke of a beloved community rooted in justice and equity. If we want to protect our multiracial democracy and build a future worthy of that vision, let us not choose division, but rather show up for one another and make a home that works for us all.
King asked whether we would descend into chaos or build beloved community. The answer is not given to us. It is built by us.
Venu Gupta is executive director of Chicago Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization working to secure racial equity and economic opportunity for all.
Submit a letter, of no more than 400 words, to the editor here or email letters@chicagotribune.com.
