What Does a Just Future Look Like?
People and communities across the country are upholding MLK's legacy. Here’s how.
Imagination is a powerful force for fostering hope, even when the present feels bleak. Tricia Hersey taps into this spirit in her book, Rest Is Resistance. Drawing from the wisdom of legendary Black women, Octavia Butler and bell hooks, who “have relentlessly spoken about the idea of seeing and crafting the world we want,” Hersey urges readers to lean into the power of imagination as a liberation tool. She quotes hooks: “Imagination is one of the most powerful modes of resistance that oppressed and exploited folks can do and use.”
This belief in the power of imagination has fueled movements for justice. Even the most violent oppression could not crush Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of a “Beloved Community” where care and compassion prevail, and people work together to end hunger, poverty, bigotry, and violence. In King’s Beloved Community a “type of love that can transform opposers into friends" governs society.
Today, people and communities across the country are upholding his legacy. They are boldly imagining and building the future in real time with care, courage, and solidarity.
This is how a future that affirms our dignity and supports our wellbeing is taking shape:
Inclusive storytelling cultivates a culture of belonging
As a child, Angela Patton refused to conform to systems designed to maintain the status quo. While some labeled her a troublemaker, teachers and classmates predicted she would emerge a leader. They were right.
As an adult she answered her calling to “prepare Black girls for the world and the world for Black girls.” By leading Girls for a Change, a youth development organization, she makes sure girls are seen, heard, and celebrated. Patton co-directed an award-winning documentary, Daughters which poignantly explores relationships between four young girls and their incarcerated fathers. Imagination takes root in these stories, and through FRESH Speakers, leaders like Patton are reclaiming the microphone to portray the power and potential of their communities. Patton exemplifies why representation matters.
Because a father is locked in does not mean he should be locked out of his daughter’s life, says Angela Patton.
Communities build solidarity and shared narrative power
Trevor Smith and Savannah Romero believe that “across generations and cultures, our strength has always come from relationships—the ties that bind us and remind us that our fates are interconnected.”
This deeply held belief inspired their vision for the BLIS Collective (Black Liberation–Indigenous Sovereignty). They explain how BLIS brings people together across movements to build shared narrative power that can help repair “the harms done to Black and Indigenous people, and create a future where all people, regardless of their identity, can live freely and fully.” Smith and Romero also believe that braiding narratives “can create the conditions for transformative solutions to take root and reshape our economy and democracy.”
“There are people doing good works and shining light in dark places. And we have to hold onto that.”
– Dr. Bernice King
The economy uplifts all people
Economist Darrick Hamilton recalls how “New York City in the 1980s looked one way if you grew up, as I did, in the mostly Black neighborhood of Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. And it looked quite different if you attended—as I also did—Brooklyn Friends, an elite Quaker private school.” He notes how economic circumstances and inequitable wealth distribution separated these worlds. His experience shaped a career “learning what creates those limits and advancing ideas to overcome them.”
Hamilton's work advances Dr. King's vision of an economy where everyone flourishes. Through leadership of the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at the New School, he is reimagining an economy that will support every child and family. The Institute is an architect of baby bonds to close the racial wealth gap. It also promotes a guaranteed income to reduce economic insecurity, improve educational outcomes, and enhance wellbeing.
New York city mayor Zohran Mamdani has appointed Hamilton to lead his economic and workforce development transition team. Hamilton says “designing a political economy that lifts up all human beings across generations is a moral obligation that each one of us can help fulfill.”
Communities are inclusive and accessible to all
John Samuel also envisions a future where “economic opportunities are within reach for us all, and our jobs give us purpose and connection.” But in college, he feared missing out when he received a diagnosis of retinitis pigmentosa, a genetic disorder that led to complete vision loss. Samuel initially hid his diagnosis, acknowledging in retrospect that it was a response to society’s deeply engrained ableism. He shares how his journey has taught him “that an inclusive future begins with making workplaces accessible for everyone, especially people with disabilities.” He now leads efforts to make that future a reality.
Inclusive communities also depend on people understanding the laws and policies that affect wellbeing. New Disabled South (NDS) created the Plain Language Policy Dashboard which translates pending legislation in 14 southern states into language that everyone can understand. The dashboard enables civic participation that supports a more inclusive and accessible future for all.
NDS CEO Dom Kelly says the “dashboard uses bill tracking software to identify relevant legislative proposals and artificial intelligence (AI) to summarize them.” He notes that his team does not depend solely on AI. NDS staff ensure that plain language translations are accurate. “This human element is essential,” he says.
Technology works with and for the people
Timnit Gebru understands the limitations, harms, and potential of AI and technology. She launched Distributed Artificial Intelligence Research Institute (DAIR) to disrupt those harms and accelerate imagination and creation of new technologies and tools to build a better future.
DAIR aims to root AI research, development, and deployment in people and communities from the start. It is collaborating with activists, organizers, and communities with a firsthand understanding of AI’s consequences. For example, researchers are partnering with refugees to combat the misuse of AI-based monitoring technologies, biometric security systems, and lie detection tests at national borders. Gebru notes “we can get in front of these harms and create a future that values equity and humanity.”
The stories we repeat shape the future
Amid the ongoing brutality and injustice communities face, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter, Dr. Bernice King reminds us, “There are people doing good works and shining light in dark places. And we have to hold onto that.”
bell hooks understood the importance of sustaining this belief through intentional repetition of stories that condition society’s collective imagination. “Hearing the same story makes it impossible to forget,” she wrote.
Shaping an inclusive future depends on the stories we carry forward. Intentionally and consistently repeating them can help us replace divisive narratives with belief in a future that honors our dignity. This belief is what will spur and sustain action to rebuild systems that will serve us all, moving us closer to a future where health is not a privilege for some, but a right for us all.
Discover what happens when communities have resources to imagine futures that uplift us all.
About the Author
Najaf Ahmad is senior managing editor of the RWJF Voices Blog.