Heidi Safia Mirza
This Christmas marked the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr’s sermon at St Paul’s Cathedral on his way to Oslo to accept the Nobel Peace Prize. On 6 December 1964, when I was just six years old in Trinidad, Dr King shared his mighty wisdom on what it is to be human in a racist world. Fifty years on, on a bright, crisp winter night 1,300 people gathered under the same magnificent dome of St Paul’s to reflect on Martin Luther King’s ‘Dream’ of an equal society, free from discrimination, intolerance, prejudice and extremism.
It was a momentous occasion to be asked to stand in the footsteps of Martin Luther King, and a great honour to be one of the speakers together with Baroness Doreen Lawrence of Clarendon, and Hugh Muir, Diary editor at The Guardian. The three of us were challenged by the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral, to consider the legacy of Martin Luther King and look forward to the possibilities of ‘Ending Racism’ in the next 50 years. (more…)