What makes this observation remarkable is that King isn't claiming justice arrives swiftly or inevitably—he's insisting it bends *toward* it while acknowledging the arc extends beyond any single lifetime. This sidesteps both naive optimism and despair by suggesting that moral progress requires patience alongside urgency, that we might not live to see the full bend but our work still matters. When activists today continue organizing for voting rights or police reform despite setbacks, they're operating from exactly this patience: they know the arc is longer than their own arc, yet they push anyway.