It was an unusual place for me to be singing a civil rights song, holding hands with a decadently dressed stranger, surrounded by the fur-laded masses of the theater-going class inside the Chicago Symphony Orchestra hall. United in song we swayed side-to-side, hand-in-hand guided by the Maestro Mei-Ann Chen and the Apostolic Church choir singing “We Shall Overcome,” becoming something resembling Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s beloved community: cooperating to create harmony. The elation and rambunctious applause capped an eventful M.L.K. day in Chicago. Officially recognized as a holiday in 1983, when the most unlikely of political demagogues, Ronald Reagan, ushered the passage of a bill through Congress, the holiday was officially recognized by all 50 states in the union starting in only in 2000.

After the spirited performance I began to reflect on the legacy of Dr. King and about my time in Memphis, a city where Dr. King launched a program of support for striking sanitation workers in 1968 in the lead up to a Poor Peoples' March on Washington. I visited the Lorraine Motel where Dr. King was assassinated, which has since become the National Civil Rights Museum, and stood at the balcony where Dr. King was struck down outside his room. I recall feeling that the ceremonial wreathe was not enough and that I wanted his presence right at that moment so he could offer wisdom in these trying times.

The world has come to terms with the loss of the talismanic and iconic Dr. King (who would have turned 83 this year) but there is still much to be done to bring about the world he envisioned. Many have taken up the work of restoring justice to his name, much needed after countless revisionists have attempted to paint him as a moderate ...