"I Still Have Faith in the Future, and I Still Have Faith in America": MLK's Flag Day Speech, Three Days Out of Jail

Today is a big, patriotic day: a time to celebrate the very best of America.

For now, let's put to the side the 80th birthday of our President and his decision to stage “UFC Freedom 250” on the grounds of the White House.

It's also Flag Day, an invitation to celebrate the stars and stripes and all they are supposed to stand for. Like so many Americans, I grew up standing in the front of my elementary school classroom with my hand over my heart, pledging allegiance to the flag of a country where the states were “united,” a country that was “indivisible,” and a country featuring “liberty and justice for all.”

Sixty-two years ago today, June 14, 1964—also a Sunday as it turned out—Springfield College staged its commencement. When the preferred commencement speaker had been announced a few months beforehand, an FBI memo circulated trying to convince the college president, Glenn Olds, to back away from his choice. Doing so, the memo said, would “save that institution from embarrassment” because of the speaker's “connections and character.”

That speaker was Martin Luther King, Jr.

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