Today is the 54th anniversary of the March on Washington and Dr. King’s I Have a Dream speech.
On the 54th anniversary of my father's 'I Have a Dream' speech, I remain hopeful. I still have a dream worth working for humanity. #MLK pic.twitter.com/Ea2P3Gi8Ke
— Be A King (@BerniceKing) August 28, 2017
On this 54th anniversary the Anne Frank Center brings the heat:
54 years ago, the March on Washington. Two weeks ago, @POTUS aimed a wrecking ball at Dr. King's dream we share. The dream will never die. pic.twitter.com/ioJ9uO0X0U
— Anne Frank Center (@AnneFrankCenter) August 28, 2017
Here’s the video of the speech:
ETA at 11:05 PM
Lest we forget, today is the 62nd anniversary of Emmet Till’s murder. The date for the March on Washington was specifically chosen to coincide with the anniversary of Till’s murder.
On this date in 1955, Emmett Till was abducted by two white men in Mississippi and brutally murdered. 62 years ago. pic.twitter.com/waj3wQu1gY
— Philip Lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) August 28, 2017
MoeLarryAndJesus
But first, there’s a nightmare to stomp out.
Lyrebird
Thank you Adam.
I’m taking a moment to honor the memory of one of my forebears who proudly joined that throng on the Mall.
Was just thinking yeah, maybe keep up some Confederate statues so long as they can be joined — each and every one of ’em — by statues of fallen Union soldiers, statues of enslaved people worked to death (iirc exhaustion was a top cause of death), memorials to the women who were killed after grinding glass into the meal they cooked for their captor.
But the late Rev. King might say that working to keep that dream alive might be more important than reviving the cast statue industry for all these long-gone folks, I don’t know.
Peace to all,
even if it means (for the Nazis) long and peaceful stays in prison.
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: So, 82d Airborne Divarty?
Adam L Silverman
@MoeLarryAndJesus:
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: I’m not following.
Adam L Silverman
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: It was originally a reply to your first post of the At Dawn We Ride pic. To me, she looked like she was in parachute harness. And she looks like she could be one of the divarty inspection kids from yesterday.
Mike in NC
After seeing several Letters to the Editor whining about the glorious Confederate statues, I suggested before dumping them to the bottom of the ocean we should offer modern day apologists an opportunity to go along for the ride.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: Now I’m tracking. I wasn’t sure if you were referring to the Anne Frank Center bringing the heat. Couldn’t quite figure out how you’d go from there to 82nd Airborne DIVARTY.
GregB
If memory serves, Congressman John Lewis is the sole surviving speaker from that day.
? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?
I know there’s a terrible hurricane in Texas right now, but has the Admin acknowledged this anniversary?
efgoldman
Hearing that speech still gives me chills. I was 18.
For so long, we thought our society was changing along with out own attitudes. I suppose some people might have known, as long ago as Sanctus Ronaldus Magnus, the backlash would be so terrible that one of our major parties would make common cause with nazis and white supremacists, but here we are.
I am so ashamed of my fellow white men.
Adam L Silverman
@? ?? Goku (aka The Hope of the Universe) ? ?: Not as far as I can tell.
guachi
“I Have a Dream” is the greatest speech I’ve ever heard. Even knowing it’s significance, I was awed hearing it in full for the first time.
Adam L Silverman
And lest we forget:
Adam L Silverman
@guachi: Did you get the email I sent you?
Mike E
I was born 43 days after that march…the president was murdered soon after, when I was 43 days old
Omnes Omnibus
@Adam L Silverman: FWIW, me brain makes odd leaps at times.
Adam L Silverman
@Omnes Omnibus: It happens to all of us.
Sab
Any of the Canadians out there. I read a blog post by Rob MacDougall at University of Western Ontario after Obama won in 2008 called “American for a Day”. It made me cry with pride. He teaches American studies to Canadians, and he was so pleased with us . He has a new book out. I cant find it with my e-book stores. Can one help me?
Sab
@Adam L Silverman: I was a white infant in NC and my mother was so happy about Brown v Board.
Steve in the ATL
@Mike E: and you had a secretary named kennedy who drove a Lincoln?
opiejeanne
@Mike E: I was 13 when the speech was made. I was 5 when Emmett Till was murdered, but I remember it. I must have read about it a couple of years later, when I was 10 or 11 because it feels like a memory. .
opiejeanne
@Steve in the ATL: Ha!
Quinerly
@Mike in NC:
New one just went up in Alabama over the weekend. Yes, private lands. Still shows a mindset and defiance that isn’t going away.
cmorenc
Not to take the credit or spotlight away from MLK, but it did make a huge difference in the extent and speed of practical impact the speech had on American society and law that the President in office at the time (LBJ) was in tune with its message, and used his political skills and powers to advance its aims, rather than someone like Trump or even Reagan, inclined to instead cater to the racists. LBJ had the inside political skills and personal connections to effectively twist the arms of several southern segregationist Senators holding key committee chairs into allowing several landmark pieces of Civil Rights legislation to come to (public accommodations, voting rights, etc) – back in the days when it took 2/3 vote to break a filibuster rather than just 60. OTOH it’s doubtful LBJ would have committed the necessary effort and political capital into it, had MLK and the civil rights movement he led not laid the groundwork by demonstrating and going to jail and suffering beatings, culminating in the 1964 march and “I have a dream” speech.
Omnes Omnibus
@cmorenc: Don’t be a douche.
Steeplejack (phone)
@Sab:
Not seeing a new book. But he is “currently writing a history of pseudoscience in 19th-century America, tentatively called King Crank.” Maybe you saw a mention of that?
Ruckus
@Omnes Omnibus:
You don’t think that LBJ would have done all that without MLK? I don’t either.
Also Fuck LBJ. Asshole did a lot of good but he also got a lot of people killed for no good reason. And he fucked the democratic party for quite a while with that war.
cmorenc
@Omnes Omnibus:
It’s not being a douche to recognize that MLK’s speech had the power to move President Johnson into taking key actions toward implementing its aims – consider by contrast that had Nixon won in 1960 and been in office, it could have been a very long time before the speech translated into actual pragmatic results. I was alive in high school in the south at the time of the speech, and remember what the segregated south was like, and how fierce the resistance and resentment of the white community in most places across the south was, and how forbidding an obstacle entrenched southern US senators were toward any change. My high school was desegregated when I was in the 11th grade, and that would’t have happened without both Dr. King and the civil rights movement, but also the support of the federal government pushing reluctant southern towns into compliance.
BOTH King and LBJ were instrumental in causing a sea change in US law and society – though King had by far the tougher, braver, more difficult task at hand.
cmorenc
@Ruckus:
All those southern politicians didn’t migrate from the democratic party, nor did a substantial portion of the white southern electorate migrate from D to R, because of Vietnam. It was LBJ’s role in passing the key pieces of civil rights legislation that dismantled de jure segregation giving blacks legal equality that was the prime factor, at least in the south.
sukabi
@Adam L Silverman: that is one FIERCE warrior child.???
Ruckus
@cmorenc:
Are you trying to be dense? I’m not talking about the civil rights deaths, I’m talking about Vietnam.
As raven says, Fuck LBJ. And a lot of those solders killed were minorities because of the draft and the way it was run up until the draft lottery, which didn’t happen till Dec 1969, which LBJ had nothing to do with.