Yes, above Lincoln or Kennedy or Roosevelt above any of the presidents; above the titans of industry or culture or science or sport. Above them all, Martin L. King is the one who spoke to, and whose words continue to speak to, the broken heart of America — the promise and the lie, the dreams and the nightmares of America.

He held America to account to its creed of equality; told America that the bombs it was dropping in Vietnam would explode at home; went to the mountaintop and glimpsed a promised land and still on the day of his murder was planning a sermon asking if America would go to hell.

In his lifetime, King was not the revered figure he is today. He was jailed. He was tracked by the FBI. He had the dogs set upon him. He was not popular. Before his death, a poll of Americans showed King had a 75 per cent disapproval rate. Even among other black Americans he was not universally loved. A young generation was impatient with his message of non-violence and love. King himself wondered if they were not right. In the decades since his image has been molded and softened. Rather than the firebrand reverend, we get the apostle for peace. Yet both things were true.

The post-American world is upon us

White liberals love to quote his famous speech that we should be judged by the content of our character, not the colour of our skin, to tell us — black people or people of colour — that we should put aside the politics of race. They don't realise that he was talking to them too. He was telling white people not to judge the rest of us by the colour of their white skin.

Of course, King championed a glorious and incurable colour blindness. He believed in the universality and Christian peoplehood of all, but never lost sight of the struggle for black rights. Black philosopher Cornel West reminds us that for King, "the black freedom struggle requires a cross to bear", not a "flag to wave".

King's bible was used at Obama's swearing in ceremony in 2009.(Public Domain)

West challenged the idea that Barack Obama's election as the first black president was the fulfilment of King's dream. King's bible was used at Obama's swearing-in ceremony. But West worried about the celebrations of the black elite who "became Obama-like flag wavers rather than Martin King-like cross bearers". West believed King would shed tears from the grave at the capture of Obama by Wall Street and American imperialism.

King set American democracy a test it is still struggling to meet. America is a troubled, exhausted, divided and racially striven nation. This can no longer be called the American century. In many ways the post-American world is upon us. China is the biggest engine of economic growth and soon to be the single biggest economy in the world.

America boasts the most powerful military but it has spent decades bogged down in foreign wars, it has tens of thousands of troops stationed around the world, it is burdened and ended its single longest war by fleeing Afghanistan and leaving it to the Taliban.

Race is central

Yet America — more than China, more than the rich nations of Europe — will still likely determine the fate of our world. If it is to have a future, democracy — in retreat and crumbling within — must meet the test of America. Post-Cold War liberal triumphalism does not answer the questions of 21st century America. The idea of America is contested every day. It is a nation of different races and faiths and cultures and creeds all crammed in and making it up as they go along.