If you want to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., do NOT focus on “making HISTORY.” Focus on making a better FUTURE.
Every MLK Day, we celebrate the past. We should. But we’re missing something critical.
Dr. King himself was NOT someone who was focused on the past.
KING’S DREAM = AFRO-FUTURISM
When a 33-year-old Dr. King was standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, he wasn’t chasing history books. He was speaking into existence a world that had never existed — one where black and white children could live and play together as equals.
After 400 years of racial oppression, that vision was as fantastical as Star Wars or Star Trek today. But since that speech, aspects of that dream have become real.
In other words: Dr. King was not engaged in nostalgia. He was engaged in a public projection of radical AFRO-FUTURISM.
REV. JACKSON’S HIDDEN CONTRIBUTION:
Twenty years later, the Rev. Jesse Jackson did the same thing when he ran for President in 1988. He didn’t win — but he changed the DNC rules. Instead of “winner take all” primaries (a boon for big names with big money), Jackson believed that a candidate’s convention delegates should match the proportion of voters the candidate won in elections across the country. This one change made it possible, 20 years later, for Barack Obama to walk through the door Jackson had pushed open.
Watch the 20-year cycle or rhythm here:
1968: Dr. King is killed, fighting for garbage workers in Memphis.
1988: Jesse Jackson rewires the system.
2008: Obama breaks through.
It’s about to be 20 years again. 2028 is coming.
What is the Black future? What are we creating right now for the generations to build on top of?
CAN WE “MAKE WAKANDA REAL”?
Can we unite big tech’s A.I. (artificial intelligence) with our OWN A.I. (ancient intelligence and ancestral intelligence) to avoid a nightmarish future – and instead make Wakanda real?
When you have giants like Ambassador Andrew Young, Ella Jo Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer and Bayard Rustin, it’s easy to get transfixed by what they did. But they weren’t thinking about history while they were making it. They were thinking about the FUTURE.
Please take a few minutes to watch the video above. It’s from a talk I gave in 2025 at John Hope Bryant’s HOPE Global Forums, on a panel chaired by the legendary Bishop T.D. Jakes.
Then ask yourself: What are you speaking into existence for 2028? For 2048?
We need more positive futurists — of all shades and kinds — taking the stage today.
