Hunley: King’s dream is coming to power

Technically, we're to celebrate the life and work of Martin Luther King Jr. today and to inaugurate the new president Tuesday.

But almost since Barack Obama won the presidency Nov. 4, it's been hard to separate the two men.

King spoke eloquently about a time coming when people would no longer be judged by on the color of their skin.

But even in the 21st century we all can sadly point to those who place too much weight on that one fact about a person.

One of my best friends in high school had a black father and a white mother—just like Obama. He liked to say that that gave him license to tell jokes about blacks and about whites.

But it wasn't funny when a black business executive told me that his clothes determined how others judged him.

If he wore a suit to the bank, he said, he got good service. If he was casually clothed, not so much.

Hearing stories like that made me doubt that America would elect a black president in my lifetime.

"He's made the dream alive for us," Myra Bryan told me when I met her Saturday night.

Bryan teaches art and drama at King Elementary, the school in Dale City named for the man who had the dream with a capital D.

She put her impression of King and Obama into a work of art that's hanging at the school. And she exuded excitement as she and her daughter attended the 44/44 Grassroots Pre-Inaugural Ball at the Crystal Gateway Mar-riott in Crystal City.

The event was put on by the Democratic Black Caucus of Virginia and the Virginia Association of Democratic Chairs, and a lot of local folks were there.

One of them was the Rev. Luke E. Torian, pastor of First Mount Zion Baptist Church in Dumfries.

While Bryan expressed her feelings about King and Obama on canvas, Torian explained the towering figures' connection in a way appropriate for his position.

"There's something divine about it," he told me.

The "44/44" in the title of the ball reflected the facts that Obama will be the 44th leader of the free world and that he was the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry the Old Dominion in 44 years.

I didn't hear much talk of segregation at Saturday's party, but if you go back in time more than four decades, it's certainly there.

Manassas Mayor Harry J. "Hal" Parrish II recalled that era when he spoke Jan. 10 at the Greater Ma-nassas Society for the Preservation of Black Heritage's annual MLK event.

He said the city where he lived his entire life saw no major incidents during the tense times of integration. Schools were segregated when Parrish was in elementary school, then integrated by the time he was in high school.

"Upon reflection, within me and my life, I believe that time was not such a big change personally because of my parents," Parrish said. "My parents had always taught me the good of all of God's chil-dren."

The good of all of God's children.

That's something we're likely to value today, and Tuesday, too.

The trick will be if we can remember it on Wednesday. Then next week, next month, and in the months and years to come.

Jonathan Hunley is a staff writer at the News & Messenger. Contact him at 703-369-5738 or .