‘I have a dream …’ January 17, 2011

(This was originally posted four years ago. It’s appropriate to repost it for the holiday.)

This is the full version of Martin Luther King Jr.’s historic “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963.

So what does King have to do with Route 66? Well, there’s this passage:

There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, “When will you be satisfied?” [...] We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. [...] We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by a sign stating: “For Whites Only.”

I occasionally long to time-travel to see Route 66 during its heyday, to see its restaurants, motels and businesses when they were thriving. But I hold no desire to stay in that time of widespread racial discrimination.

Michael Wallis, author of “Route 66: The Mother Road,” alluded to this during a speech in 2003:

… [T]he late great Nat King Cole, the man with the velvet voice who helped immortalize this very highway by singing Bobby Troup’s “Get Your Kicks,” [...] for way too long would not be able to check into even a modest tourist court or dine in a greasy spoon on the Mother Road or any other road in this country.

“As a boy, I saw the ‘No colored’ signs at gas stations on my Route 66 just as I did on the roads of the Deep South. I also saw signs in cafe windows declaring, ‘No dogs, No Indians,’ and only yards away a Native American craftsman sold his hand-fashioned art from the sidewalk. Black families traveling American’s byways packed their own food and often slept in their vehicles. They didn’t get their kicks on Route 66, or at least the kind of kicks I was getting as a youngster as a hitchhiking Marine. At highway stops such as the Rock Cafe in Stroud, Oklahoma, during the ’30s and ’40s and ’50s and into the ’60s, black travelers went to the back door to get their food to go. None of them walked inside.

I’ve noticed that racism along Route 66 nowadays is more subtle and has evolved, targeting Asian-Americans who actually own motels along the road. One of the more snide comments heard is: “If you smell curry, leave in a hurry.”

I’m not the only one who has noticed this unwarranted bias. Wallis saw it, too, and urged Route 66 travelers to “choose the high road” instead.

“… [J]ust look around you. Just look at our highway today. Read the … signs on motels and other businesses proclaiming in great big letters “American Owned.” … Signs that serve no good purpose except to divide us and slap us in the face.

“… Remember the many, many reputable motel owners and operators from Indian, Pakistan, and Asia who are doing their dead-level best to provide service in their adopted homeland. Many of them are American citizens. Most are well-educated and hail from the state of Gujarat in India. Many of these have the surname Patel, as common a name in that state as Martinez is in New Mexico. [...]

“So please, I ask you to make your decisions wisely. Mark Twain said, ‘Travel cures prejudice.’ That may be true, but still you have to consider your actions and the daily decisions you make as a traveler.

“You my good friends, my loved ones . . . strive to be all you can be. Take the high road whenever you can. Reject the ignorant and the ill informed. Turn your backs on the purveyors of hatred. Seek out the good in all people. Conform your actions to the good of all others. Release your righteous indignation. Admit when you’re wrong. Embrace your own humanity.

“Choose the high road. It takes strength and discipline to choose that path. Take a step in its direction — one step at a time, one day at a time.

“Make every single day your own masterpiece. Make wise choices but never be afraid of risk. Seek out the crooked paths, the roads of genius. Enjoy the journey.”