Editorial August 17, 2020 Issue

Are we consenting to equality?

Tony Lobl

Sam Cooke’s plaintive but hopeful civil rights anthem, “A Change is Gonna Come” is a timeless classic. It was number 12 in Rolling Stone’s December 2004 list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

I’m sure I’m not alone in wishing it weren’t so timeless a classic. When the song was released during the civil rights era in the United States, it was a bold statement of the social problems faced by Blacks, interlaced with the singer’s heartfelt hope. Why hasn’t that hope been realized almost sixty years later? Why aren’t we joyfully singing, “The change has come and it’s permanent!”

Of course, it’s right to be grateful for the hard-won progress made during and since the civil rights era. But the change Cooke was hoping for clearly hasn’t been fully realized when many obstacles to racial equality remain. Many feel a deep sorrow that such barriers still stand.

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