The Vineyard is justifiably proud of its history as a place apart from the mainland, a place where African Americans were welcomed when they were not elsewhere.

Above all, the Island has been a place of tolerance and community, where we accept and rely on each other.

And what better way to observe the life and leadership of the man than to recall the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., spoken from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28, 1963, before hundreds of thousands of people stretching from the Tidal Basin to the Washington Monument:

“I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’”