“We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”
— Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution.” Speech given at the National Cathedral, March 31, 1968.
Dr. King’s famous statement is actually a rephrasing from a much earlier sermon delivered in 1853 by abolitionist minister Theodore Parker who said: “I do not pretend to understand the moral universe. The arc is a long one. My eye reaches but little ways. I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by experience of sight. I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends toward justice.”
Both Parker and King are expressing their faith, offering a prayer. They seem certain that the arc bends towards justice but they are, it seems, unsure of just how long that arc is. Will we overcome — reach justice — in our own lifetimes? In the lifetimes of our children? How long must we wait?
I don’t know the answer because my eye, too, “reaches but little ways.” But of this I am certain: I will not stop believing, hoping, praying, and striving with all of my heart to make it bend just a little bit more.