The Nueces County Courthouse<\/a> was a busy place as the annual March for MLK wrapped up and a justice forum took place inside. We asked participants and panelists how they see the state of civil rights in the country today.<\/p>\nMattie Darnley is from Selma, Alabama, a city known for its role in the historic voting rights marches of the 1960s. She attended the march with a clear message.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we are going backwards because nothing much has changed,\u201d Darnley said. \u201cThe only reason is because black people don\u2019t pull together like every race in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many who marched had earlier taken part in the justice forum held inside the courthouse. Attorney Matt Manning, one of the panelists, offered a stark assessment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we are going backwards in sixth gear,\u201d Manning said. \u201cThere\u2019s a very strong concerted effort to attack anything that has been a gain in the last 50 or 60 years. We are saying the quiet parts out loud now. Things that used to be beyond the pale politically, morally, and socially are no longer beyond the pale.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another panelist, Del Mar College history professor Jim Klein, reflected on what Dr. King might think if he were alive today.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he would be concerned,\u201d Klein said. \u201cHe would be concerned about the dramatic divisions in the country. We need to do what we can to try and maintain his legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Darnley said change begins with how people treat one another.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we learn how to love each other as much as we love our animals,\u201d she said, \u201cIt would be a much better place to live.\u201d<\/p>\n
The voices heard at today\u2019s march and forum came from different generations and backgrounds, but they shared the same concern. Progress made decades ago cannot be taken for granted.<\/p>\n
For many who gathered, honoring Dr. King\u2019s legacy is not just about remembering history. It is about confronting where the country stands right now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Several participants at the MLK Day March in Corpus Christi issued blunt warnings about the future of civil…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":{"0":"post-129632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-corpus-christi","8":"tag-corpus-christi","9":"tag-corpus-christi-headlines","10":"tag-corpus-christi-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}