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"Promissory Note" marries MLK's moving words with music and imagery
Filmmaker Jazeel Gayle took a key passage from Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech and transformed it into a powerful short film about Black Lives Matter.
Jazeel says:
This film is a tribute to this great country and its bloody imperfections. I detest the idea that Black Lives Matter is somehow un-American. The framers of the Constitution made a promise of Freedom and Justice for all. And that promise is overdue! And weve come to collect.
Below is the relevant passage from Dr. King's 1963 speech:
Read the restIn a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and theDeclaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
Original Link: https://boingboing.net/2020/07/09/promissory-note-marries-ml.html