Warnock: We Must Finish The Unfinished Business Of Dr. King

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This week, U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) recognized the approaching Martin Luther King, Jr. Day holiday by sharing a message of hope for Georgians and Americans reflecting on the promise of Dr. King’s vision for a “beloved community,” and reiterating the urgent need to complete the unfinished business of Dr. King.

Read below for Senator Warnock’s message on Martin Luther King Jr. Day:

“My friends, as we remember and celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., let us recommit ourselves to continuing his life’s work and mission.

“For years, I’ve been inspired by Dr. King’s vision for a Beloved Community and his wise words that we are tied in a single garment of destiny caught up in an inescapable network of mutuality.

“Dr. King said that whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. In every vote and decision I make in the United States Senate, I try my best to reflect that moral vision. We’re still working on Dr. King’s unfinished business.

“He used to talk all the time about Franz Schubert’s Unfinished Symphony. Most symphonies have four movements. Schubert’s symphony only has two. And he used to think aloud at his sermons about why perhaps it was only two movements. But he said that in a real sense that’s the noble life. The noble life is a life engaged in work that is left unfinished. I believe that our life’s project ought to be larger than our lifetime.

“And so on this day as we reflect on the life and the legacy of Dr. King, we must also work towards completing his unfinished business towards finishing his dream to secure the right to vote for every eligible American.

“You know, these days I think often about Dr. King’s speech in front of the Lincoln Memorial. No, not the 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech — great speech. But I think more often these days about the one he gave the first time he spoke in the shadow of Lincoln in 1957, where he addressed what he called, quote, all types of conniving methods that were getting in the way of the free exercise of the constitutional right to vote. His rallying cry that day in 1957, was give us the ballot.

“And so there are many today who will celebrate Dr. King’s life while dishonoring his life’s work by blocking efforts to pass federal voting rights legislation. Keep this in mind: you cannot remember Dr. King and dismember his legacy at the same time, it is a contradiction.

“And so as the pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church — Dr. King’s spiritual home — know that this is a fight I will never give up. Like Dr. King, we must keep marching until victory is won. Keep the faith and keep looking up.”

**Watch Senator Reverend Warnock’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day message**