Symposium Introduction: The Pursuit of Civil Rights and Public Sector Values in the 21st Century: Examining Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Vision in the Trump Era

• Published date: 01 November 2020
• Author: Richard Greggory Johnson,Susan T. Gooden,RaJade M. Berry‐James PhD
• Date: 01 November 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13314

Symposium Introduction: The Pursuit of Civil Rights and Public Sector Values in the 21st Century 1035

Public Administration Review,

Vol. 80, Iss. 6, pp. 1035–1037. © 2020 by

The American Society for Public Administration.

DOI: 10.1111/puar.13314.

Symposium Introduction: The Pursuit of Civil Rights and

Public Sector Values in the 21st Century: Examining

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Vision in the Trump Era

On August 28, 1963, in front of more than

250,000 civil rights supporters and the world,

Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic “I

Have a Dream Speech.” From the steps of the Lincoln

Memorial, King eloquently examined the significant

gap between the American dream and the American

reality in his pursuit of civil rights. Across the United

States, King held accountable overt white supremacists

for violating the dream and argued that “our federal

government also scarred the dream through its apathy

and hypocrisy, its betrayal of the cause of justice.”

Pursuing civil rights within public administration

in our field’s flagship journal, Public Administration

Review, dates back to Frances Harriet Williams’

1947 article, “Minority Groups and the OPA.”

Her work is pioneering because she paved the way

in articulating the importance of impartiality and

fairness in the public section. Later, during the

1960s, academics in the field of public administration

introduced the concept of social equity within New

Public Administration, notably to advance efforts

that improve public accountability, sustain public

service needs, and ensure fairness in government.

Since that time, public administrators have served

as agents of change—women, people of color, the

LGBTQ+ population, and other marginalized groups

actively pursuing social equity. Current social justice

movements such as Black Lives Matter, #MeToo, and

the Transgender Movement demonstrate that society

must do more work to actualize the intent of King’s

speech. Moving from a social campaign to sustainable

social change defines the future of work, given our

American reality.

This PAR symposium, The Pursuit of Civil Rights

and Public Sector Values in the 21st Century:

Examining Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Vision in

the Trump Era, was first conceived in 2018. Then,

no one could have imagined how different the world

would be in 2020. America continues to bear witness

to earthshattering social justice issues—vulnerable

children and parents are separated and inhumanely

housed in U.S. detention centers. Witnessing the

unfair and unjust treatment of minor children

coupled with racist incidents and police brutality

requires us to continue to pause, even after as we have

witnessed the Charleston church shooting by a lone

gunman who killed nine African Americans studying

the bible. By 2020, who could have forecasted that

our nation would be in the gripping clutches of a

global pandemic, namely, COVID-19? Who could

have predicted that the epidemic of racism would

reveal disproportionate rates of death for African

Americans, Latinos, and American Indians? Over this

short time, who could have estimated the number of

police-related deaths involving African Americans,

particularly in high-profile cases of Breonna Taylor

(March 13, 2020) and George Floyd (May 25,

2020)? All of these situations were horrific, and the

consequences of each critical incident require each

of us to bear witness to the truth: Social movement

produces social change, in the United States and all

around the world.

The timeliness of this symposium is critical, as at the

time of this writing, the U.S. presidential election

approaches in a few short weeks. The outcome

of this election will certainly impact the path of

public administration and civil rights in the U.S.

and globally for many years to come, as issues such

as antiracism, racial equity, white supremacy, and

cultural competency have received robust attention at

the national, state, and local level and across national

media platforms, in a manner that has not occurred

since the 1960s. This PAR symposium should not

be viewed as a historical reflecion of battles fought

decades ago, but rather as an empirical, present-day

imperative for the implementation of entrenched U.S.

normative values, most notably “justice for all.”

Beginning in Spring 2020, the National Academy

of Public Administration (NAPA), Network of

Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration

(NASPAA), the American Society for Public

Administration (ASPA), and its Section on

Richard Greggory Johnson III

Susan T. Gooden

RaJade M. Berry-James PhD

Symposium Editors

Symposium

Introduction:

ThePursuit of

Civil Rights and

Public Sector

Values in the

21st Century:

Examining

Dr.Martin Luther

King Jr.’s Vision in

the Trump Era