I was inspired to create this illustration after listening to Martin Luther King Jr.'s "The Other America" speech. For full context, I highly suggest listening to the entire speech which I've linked below.
Excerpt transcript:
"There are certain things that we must do. The job ahead must be massive and positive. We must develop massive action programs all over the United States of America in order to deal with the problems that I have mentioned. Now, in order to develop these massive action programs, we’ve got to get rid of one or two false notions that continue to exist in our society. One is the notion that only time can solve the problem of racial injustice. I’m sure you’ve heard this idea. It is the notion almost that there is something in the very flow of time that will miraculously cure all evils. And I have heard this over and over again. There are those, and they’re often sincere people, that will say to Negros and their allies in the white community, that we should slow up and just be nice and patient and continue to pray. And in 100 or 200 years, the problem will work itself out because only time can solve the problem.
I think there is an answer to that myth, and it is that time is neutral. It can be used either constructively or destructively. And I'm absolutely convinced that the forces of ill will in our nation, the extreme righteous of our nation, have often used used time much more effectively than the forces of good will. It may well be that we will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words of the bad people and the violent actions of the bad people, but for the appalling silence and indifference of the good people who sit around and say wait on time… Somewhere we must come to see that social progress never rolls in the wheels of inevitability. It comes through the tireless efforts and the persistent work of dedicated individuals and without this hard work, time itself becomes an ally of the primitive forces of social stagnation. And so we must always help time and realize that the time is always right to do right."
- Martin Luther King Jr. | "The Other America" | Stanford University | April 14, 1967