Today marks the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial at the National Mall in Washington, D.C.. To mark the event, there will be speeches from the same place today, with three Presidents speaking as well - Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and sitting President, Barack Obama, who in many respects embodies the spirit of change of that day, being a re-elected black president (the nation's first non-white to hold the office). Surviving ex-Presidents George H. W. Bush and George W. Bush will not be in attendance, officially due to health reasons in both cases.
It is interesting on many levels that each of those men have a different angle in terms of the civil rights movement and the Jim Crow segregation of the American South.
Jimmy Carter was born in the 1920's, raised under this segregation in the Deep South of rural Georgia, both formally recognized by law and implied by practices. He writes of it fairly frequently in his books, and how it was something that very few people ever questioned. This, of course, lasted right up to and through much of his adulthood. But he was opposed to this segregation, and faced pressure within his town himself when he began to vocally criticize this system. When elected governor of Georgia, he was hailed as an embodiment of the new spirit of the post-segregation South, and mentioned that there was no turning back, as many segregationists had hoped, to segregation, and firmly establishing it as a thing, and an undesirable thing at that, of the past, and the South, and indeed the nation, needed to move forward. Carter was not deemed a serious candidate when he announced his candidacy for president in the 1976 race, but his early preparations, going much farther than any other candidate on the Democratic side, proved profitable, and he surprised many with early victories that helped to establish him as the early frontrunner,, eventually building an insurmountable lead. And in the 1976 general election, the first in the post-Watergate, he was able to win the general election. As President, Jimmy Carter championed human rights, both in America and around the world, and in his post-presidency, has become, if anything, an even stronger voice for human rights, sometimes placing himself in dangerous areas in order to try and improve the situation, and always to keep the flicker of hope alive. His Carter Center has served to try and involve itself in troubled areas, to alleviate suffering, combat diseases and poverty, trying to establish more sanitary conditions, to educate people, as well as to get involved in conflicts in order to try and ease tensions. Also, it serves a role in monitoring elections, in an attempt to establish fairness. He is a widely respected, and even revered, figure today. I would expect that Jimmy Carter will speak of his own experiences living under Jim Crow segregation in Georgia, and how much the nation has progressed since then.
Bill Clinton was born in the 1940's in the South, and like Carter, also grew up under Jim Crow segregation, in Hope, Arkansas. He was part of the young generation that ushered in much change in the country in the 1960's that saw the culmination of the Civil Rights movement. Clinton was a young student, already with political ambitions, having been photographed with John F. Kennedy in the early sixties, himself a young and energetic looking President that seemed to embody for many a spirit of hope and change. Clinton went on to some of the top universities, including Oxford, before returning to a career in politics that would prove very fruitful. He was elected Governor of Arkansas and held this post for much of the 1980's, when the South was trying to redefine itself in the post-Jim Crow era. He ran for President in 1992, in a year that seemed to have an unbeatable incumbent in office seeking re-election in George H. W. Bush. But Clinton managed to win, and his presidency is credited by many for the generally positive, and some were claiming that he would be the closest thing to a "black president" that the nation would see. In his post-presidency, he set up the Clinton Foundation, which tries to instill hope throughout the world in activism.
Finally, the current, sitting leader in the White House presently, Barack Obama. Born in the 1960's, as the nation was undergoing change, and the opportunities for him growing up were undeniably greater than they would have been at any earlier age in the nation's history. He is the first black president, and his rise to fame began with an inspiring speech in the 2004 Democratic National Convention, supporting John F. Kerry's ill-fated attempt to be the next President. But the speech put Obama's name and face on the public radar screen, as he was elected Senator from Illinois in that same year. His political star was expected to rise, but few could have expected such a quick, meteoric rise. He ran for President in 2008, and quickly established himself as not just a serious candidate, but one of the frontrunners. Surviving a grueling battle with Hillary Clinton, he eventually emerged as the winner, and was the official nominee for the Democratic Party, the first time either party had a non-white as their official nominee. He swept into power under the banner of "hope" and "change", seeming to embody a spirit of necessary change and indeed, injecting much needed hope for many in the nation. Today, he will be the main speaker from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, perhaps a fitting symbol of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s vision of fifty years ago. He will speak of how far the nation has come from that day when King set forth his dream, but will also acknowledge how far America still has to go.
There were celebrations marking the 50th anniversary this past weekend, although the official date was today, August 28th. And it is today that the event will attract the biggest attention, in terms of speakers and such.
I almost was tempted to go down to Washington myself, although I had work obligations (with two jobs) this weekend, and really needed the money. I would actually have loved to have been there on Saturday, and even more so today. I know that it would not have been like being there on that amazing day fifty years ago, but I think it would have been pretty cool, nonetheless.
But alas, that was not possible, with other obligations getting in the way. I just got my car back (it seems to be fixed, at least), and am getting ready to leave for a weekend trip with my son on this final weekend of his freedom of the summer, before school resumes again next week.
So, I was not able to be there today, but I look forward to it, and intend to watch the speeches and celebrations.
And today, I honor Martin Luther King, Jr.'s very memorable and inspiring speech, which was a vision of the nation when it got past the divisions that continued to harm the nation, and looked to a day when those wounds would heal, and the spirit of freedom, of greater opportunity and equality for all would raise everyone in this nation, and make it a better country as a result.
Indeed, we have not gotten to that promised land yet. Sometimes, it seems that for every step forward, we take two steps backward. Today, economic inequality is greater than it has been in a very long time, and the hope for opportunities at individual betterment has been largely compromised. The Voting Rights Act that was one of the key legislative efforts at dismantling Jim Crow is under attack, particularly in the Southern (that is, former "Jim Crow" states) of Texas, Florida, and North Carolina.
We seem to be fighting many of the same battles, over and over again, and it is a reminder that no victory is permanent.
At 3pm today, bells all across the nation will ring, to mark the exact moment that King delivered his famous address. I will try to not only be outside to hear it with my son, but to try and make sure that he understands what it is for, as well.
I myself was born in the mid-1970's, a little more than a decade after MLK gave his famous speech in Washington on that day, fifty years ago. About a decade after the Civil Rights Movement won an undeniable triumph, as legal segregation was finally ended, and the nation was finally traveling on the long road to progress. As a child largely of the 1980's, I grew up under the legacy of the "I Have a Dream" speech, which has grown to almost mythic proportions, and helped to deliver a vision of greater equality and freedom for the nation and, indeed on many respects, for the world. King's words, and the spirit of hope that he inspired, was recognized in South Africa, during the struggle against apartheid there. It continues to inspire to this day, as the celebrations honoring his speech in Washington today attest. I now am an adult, a father. As an American citizen myself, and the father of another American citizen, it is in my interests as well to see that my son lives in a fairer and more just nation. To that end, all Americans should acknowledge a debt of gratitude at the very least not just to Martin Luther King, Jr., but to all those who fought, very often under the threat of arrest and/or intimidation, for a better country.
Yet, still, we have to believe in hope, and we have to not only hope for, but work towards a more equitable and fair society. The official legislative edifice of the Jim Crow segregation may have been dismantled, but the victory was clearly not permanent. The battle rages on.
But we do have a black President, and a more diverse nation than ever before. There have been changes, and positive changes at that. And we need to acknowledge these as positives, and constantly look to creating more such positive changes, in the hopes of creating, some day, a nation worthy of the vision of not only Martin Luther King, Jr., but all great Americans who saw this nation, truly and without cynicism or hypocrisy, as a beacon of hope not just to those living within it's borders, but to the entire world overall.
http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/08/24/50th-anniversary-of-the-march-on-washington-in-photos/
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