My mission for the last 34 years is a direct result of the last assignment Dr. King gave me.

Dr. Martin Luther King`s last mission was to utilize our private consumer power to leverage companies for reciprocal trade. The object is not to put the company out of business; it is to put justice in the business because economic justice is fair and balanced trade. People have money, market, location and talent. Corporations have capital, access, product and opportunity. We need each other for America to prosper, for Dr. King`s dream to keep marching on.

When people discuss Dr. Martin Luther King`s last days, they invariably think of the I`ve been to the Mountaintop speech, his last public address before his assassination. They listen to the poetry of King`s last refrain but omit the substance in the body of his message. America has a way of decorating the messenger and mutilating the message. By reviewing the text of his last speech, one will better understand that my mission emanates from a commonly overlooked portion of Dr. King`s famous "Mountaintop" speech, where he states:

"We are asking you tonight, to go out and tell your neighbors not to buy Coca-Cola in Memphis. Go by and tell them not to buy Sealtest milk. Tell them not to buy Wonder Bread. And what is the other bread company, Jesse? Tell them not to buy Hart`s bread. As Jesse Jackson has said, up to now, only the garbage men have been feeling pain; now we must kind of redistribute the pain. We are choosing these companies because they haven`t been fair in their hiring policies. And we are choosing them because they can begin the process of saying they are going to support the needs and the rights of these men who are on strike. And then they can move on downtown and tell Mayor Loeb to do what is right."

Columnists have recently suggested that I "shakedown" companies into trading with companies of color. I do not. When African-Americans and Hispanics supply companies with large portions of their market and revenue and they, the corporations, don`t contract with people of color, don`t have any people of color above middle management or on their board of directors, they boycott us! Our consumer dollars keep companies in business.

The issue is injustice. It was unjust in 1968 not to hire people of color above the broom and mop level, just as it is unjust now not to hire qualified people of color and women in upper management positions or board of trustee positions. Is it just that we are 25% of a corporation`s consumers yet receive less than 2% of contracts from the corporation? Is this fair?

Dr. King did not live to see the dream he envisioned. In 1968 75% of African-Americans lived below the poverty level. Currently 25% ofAfrican-Americans live below the poverty level. Dr. King did not live to see an African-American congressperson from the South or an African-American mayor of a major city. He never saw a Black quarterback play in the NFL or watch a Black woman crowned Miss America. Still, his dream was a generation beyond the current reality, yet, all of us now are the beneficiaries of his dream and his service. And my mission for the last 34 years is a direct result of the last assignment Dr. King gave me.

Keep Hope Alive!
Rainbow/PUSH Coalition

Coutesy of Rainbow Coalition/BP