New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. today issued the following statement on the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:

This Friday represents a day when this country lost a great leader who gave his life for the cause of freedom and racial equality.

From the bus boycott in Montgomery in 1956 to the efforts of Memphis sanitation workers to organize a union 12 years later, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. never shrunk from using his voice and his moral authority to demand change. Time and again, Dr. King called attention to the daily acts of oppression and humiliation suffered by African Americans in our country.

Without Dr. King’s courage, commitment and leadership, so many of us would not have been afforded the opportunities to succeed in this country.

Celebrating Dr. King’s life recognizes that the struggle for civil rights in our country was, and is, a struggle for the freedom of all people. It is recognition of his lifelong commitment to the fight for respect and dignity among all Americans. It is recognition that Dr. King understood with uncommon clarity the meaning of those great words in our Declaration of Independence, that all men are created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights.

While we celebrate Dr. King’s life and mourn his loss, we must ask ourselves: how much further must we go to realize his dream of a just and tolerant society?

Over the last several months in our great, diverse city, we have witnessed dreadful hate crimes, those that have targeted the African American and Jewish communities. In honor of Dr. King’s life and work, we must not stand idly by and accept these acts of hate. Instead, in Dr. King’s spirit of unity, we must move forward to fulfill his vision of a more tolerant and free society.

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