“This will be the day when we bring into full realization the American dream—a dream yet unfulfilled.”

When Dr. King spoke these words to organized labor in 1961, he was naming an explicit strategy of funding movement infrastructure. He understood that democracy is not sustained by individual belief or moral persuasion, but by collective power. He knew then, as Borealis articulated in Atlanta last fall, that reaching a truly inclusive, multi-racial, and economically just democracy requires more people organizing across more differences, effectively resourced to act together.

Democracy Is a Verb in Funding Movement Infrastructure

King’s vision was less a race-neutral utopian dream (as some are prone to misrepresent it) and more a people-fueled democratic infrastructure capable of translating shared values into material change. And some sixty-five years after his rearticulation of a more just America, and one full year into our nation’s current administration, we at Borealis – all of us sharing this space and time –  find ourselves still wanting for the realization of that fully realized democratic dream.

This moment demands that we see the landscape upon which our freedom might be built much more clearly: the erosion of rights, the expansion of state violence, and the hollowing out of public trust are not failures of imagination alone. They are failures of collective investment in the structures that make democracy real.

If we look at the recent incidents involving federal law enforcement that resulted in serious harm and loss of life over the last few weeks, these events have caused immeasurable grief and rupture, yes. But they also represent something else. Each of these escalations serve as small stress tests of our civic infrastructure. They ask us: have we built a democracy capable of extending safety, belonging, and care—or one that merely counts votes while inflicting harm?

As we witness the forcible separation of families, the disappearance of our neighbors, and the deliberate cultivation of fear, we must recognize this moment for what it is: a calculated convergence of state violence, democratic erosion, and social fragmentation intended to suppress collective civil power we’ve been growing since the Civil Rights Movement.

Read the full article about funding movement infrastructure at Borealis Philanthropy.