An Open Letter From Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Once again, my people, I come to you with a heartbeat that causes me to stop, listen, and coerce my sanctified imagination to synchronize with my heartbeat forcing an alignment that causes me to accept what I feared would happen.
This is an hour in the lives of my people, Chocolate people, that everything showing up roses is not showing up, in fact as I see from where I am, it’s truly dark, gloomy, and might I say that what it looks like is downright intentional.
However, dark does not represent the strength in this case, rather the bleak environment where any of us as Chocolate individuals who’s been empowered prior to now, has to wonder about a future for a nation of people who were emboldened by their past contributions and voice, to further the rights of its people.
While preparing this letter and speaking with some of my brothers and sisters, and my most recent sister Claudette Colvin from Montgomery, Alabama, who stayed behind us but recently joined us and has been able to bring us up to date on the latest happenings with you my people, reminded us that we are not oblivious to the actions of those in power that have empowered to control and ax all that mattered to us and to a Chocolate nation. Just know that WE are still aligned with you, rooted and grounded in the fight, because WE HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE!
While I can speak about a lot of things seemingly that going on, one approach that I’m told is being utilized to minimize the effectiveness of my chocolate people, is the role of DEI and how its use id being sabotaged by those who have always attempted to stay under cover but have recently been loosed to wipe it out.
My people, I know that you are being devalues on all sides, as such acrimonious battles are being mimicked on all levels against anyone Brown and Chocolate. Think about this, when you ask the question Did You All Really Do That, it only seeks to take us back willfully which is designed to stifle any reality that all are created equal regardless of race, creed, color, religion, or ethnicity.
Oh, I know that they have forgotten the primary basic right which was granted to a people in 1863 in the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, which has been lost. Furthermore, in 1865 as a reminder, the 13th amendment was ratified to abolish slavery. However, since this time, it has been deleterious to the mental wellness of you, my Chocolate people, whom other races posture to belittle and demean as being the lesser of all other races.
The plot continues to thicken minute after minute, which seems to create and control a particular narrative on purpose. Knowing that an overarching narrative is supposed to convey a specific message that carries with it a brand known to them, intentionally it is designed to control who, what, when, where, and how. Nevertheless, what is also known is that the outcomes are impacted when their own narratives continue to provoke them.
I’ve been thinking my people about the foundation that was laid by your pioneers for the pendulum to continue to swing in the right direction for you my people, but it seems to have become altered at the hands of old bigots and new racist leaders. However, as a people, we have been conditioned to develop an optimistic view about people who have always believed that they should and do have privileges beyond others at all costs and by any means necessary.
Therefore, being recipients of intended institutional racism, we have always been progenitors of the movement resting on the backs and shoulder of a people who refused to never give up, never give in, and sho-nuff to hold on and not give out!
And one would ask, Did You All Really Do That? The answer is YES. You selectively chose to detour from the promise that was signed, sealed, and delivered. And just an FYI for you which serves to call attention to the fact that as a Chocolate nation, we have several mishaps that we can point to along the way that have interfered with us being able to maintain our rightful place. Examples might I add include your attempt to directly stack the Supreme Court Justices in your favor; your attempt to alter the Voting Rights Act, and your sneaky approaches to Redistricting our states and Representatives, oh yes, IJS.
So as natural born citizens of a country who had to accept that slaves brought over on the slave ships were indeed free and free forever, we dare not accept that for decades of perceived freedom, that we will allow you to renege on the proclamation of or the abolishing of it.
Get over yourselves White America. Our pioneers, might I say, that we died so that my people could live in a nation where you agreed to not judge us by the color of our skin rather the content of our character. And yes, we know that I, along with others committed to the Movement, provided the roadmap for this gesture but you mutually consented to this creed. Oh YES, you really did do that!
Our strength was never to be undermined and perceives as not being worthy of what others were privileged to just because we were Chocolate. We could never at the risk of losing authenticity as a Chocolate people, relent that dream which was intended to serve as a prerequisite to “Let My People Go”!
We’ve landed at this place now. Your willful neglect and misguided fallacies about Chocolate people were sitting in the cue, your lobbies, your waiting rooms, and your executive desks, while the vipers were privately and violently conniving to drum up this moment when you would overtly choose to launch “so called death to a people” because you felt privileged to do so.
Maybe the recent book that one of my dear daughters of the Movement has written, The Chocolate Cake With White Icing: The Dismantling of a Nation That Once Was, is a staunch reminder of the betrayal of White America and can be seen as a transient truth that brings attention to this nation about its dwellers, who never wanted to feel inferior to any people, especially Chocolate people.
But let’s be clear, as we experience the valiant gouging of basic and yes foundational resources, i.e. books, diversity, employment opportunities, removal of the pictures of the only A.A. President from the People’s House, and so much more, we are reminded of how severe the tactics have become so that they can remain in power and become empowered to continue to minimize the worth of Chocolate people.
O K, time’s up. I know that Chocolate can be intimidating because it changes the context and content when it comes in contact with anything else. Oh, I understand the gravity of it and if you’re baking a Chocolate Cake, it gives depth and meaning to it. Hey, for the sake of being less than petty, that’s powerful right there! And while I am here trying to remain as neutral yet positive, I’m finding myself having to repent for thoughts that I have because it seems as if you, America, are choosing to once again renege. Have you forgotten the roads less traveled? Have you forgotten that the many lives of my people have been lost as your hands? Have you forgotten that we willfully, yet reluctantly, always knew that the least mishap that you could create on purpose, you would? And that it would serve to not look like an intentional act of defiance against my people? Have you forgotten that we as pioneers were willing to die for our people that we knew would make us proud as they journeyed on?
Remember Pharaoh in Egypt who was defiant and never wanted to let God’s people go who were in slavery? Let me warn you that saying NO and attempting to not let MY people go, will only get you in trouble with the God that I served all of my life, and you will find that the torture that will occupy and overtake your life, will be laced with CRUEL & UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT that only God promises, because he said, vengeance is mine, I will repay.
And let’s be clear right here, we know that your little g.o.d. has birthed many minions that have been positioned to obey, conform, and misuse the intent of justice in their favor. Their new definition of justice that has been lodged in their minds has proven to them that anyone who looks different must be treated different.
Shame on you to become so removed from truth, honesty, and genuine love, that every move that you make becomes the only move that you choose to make, your way.
Let’s be clear, your little g.o.d., no. 47, who sits in what use to be called the WHITE HOUSE but has taken on a totally different connotation to now be HIS HOUSE, instead of the PEOPLE’S HOUSE, must bow down to the only wise God and Savior Jesus Christ, who has never forsaken those who have his DNA, his people.
Make no mistake about it America, the day of reckoning is coming because I believe that even though I am not there with MY people, the joy that they still have, even going through the dismantling and the disrespect of them as a people, the world didn’t give it to them and the world can’t take it away.
So, as I leave you MY dear people, just remember that the Lord didn’t bring you this far to leave you. Don’t get weary and feel no ways tired; you’ve come too far from where we started from, nobody told us that the road would be easy, but WE don’t believe that he brought us this far to leave us NOW!
Affectionately Surrendered and Written by
Bishop Marjorie Holt, Ph.D.
Bethesda Christian Center, Toledo, Oh.
January 15, 2026