"The Truth Of Freedom Is A Song Away..."

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. addresses the March On Washington August 28, 1963

This weekend, as Americans celebrate the 50th anniversary of the historic 1963 March On Washington.  I stumbled across this beautiful cover of a song written in that same year of tumultuous change.  "I Wish I Knew" (later: "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free") was written in 1963 by Billy Taylor and Dick Dallas and was recorded by Billy Taylor in November of that year.

This beautiful song and its poignant lyrics were made most famous by the one and only Nina Simone, who included it in her live performances throughout the era and covered it on her 1967 album "Silk & Soul."  The song had become an anthem of the modern civil rights movement ever since Billy Taylor released it on his 1964 album "Right Here, Right Now."

I've posted Nina Simone's covers of "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free" many times (including here) and it always seemed to me to be a plaintive anthem for GLBT people like myself dreaming of a day when we too could be free.  And in the short span of just these last few decades, we've moved closer to realizing that dream and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream than ever before in our history.

MLK Jr and Bayard Rustin

This weekend I've been reflecting on the lofty speeches that have been made... Many have alluded to the belief that if Dr. King were with us here today, he would tell us, as his widow Coretta did many times, that he would emphatically support marriage equality and non-discrimination rights for his GLBT brothers and sisters just as he defended and supported his openly gay friend, confidant and chief strategist Bayard Rustin.

Like Dr. King, I have a dream, that someday, and someday soon, little black boy and little white boys and little boys and girls of every color of the rainbow can grow up to be free and unafraid to love whomsoever their hearts may choose... that they will be free to live, work and worship according to the dictates of their consciences and that the state and the laws of our nation will protect and guarantee to them all of the rights and freedoms and promises of our creed and which our founders declared, "that all men are created equal..."  And when that day comes, then let us all say, we are "free at last, free at last, thank God almighty, we are free at last."

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I discovered The Lighthouse Family's cover of "I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free" this morning when I was researching my post on the arrival of marriage equality in Uruguay.  It was included as background music for a television news report from Uruguay which featured the first couple to marry under that nation's new marriage equality laws.  Watch that report here.

"Fear Eats the Soul"