Author |
Message |
Mocha
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 1:42 pm
I HAVE A DREAM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Fivescore years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free; one hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination; one hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity; one hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself in exile in his own land. So we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of our Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was the promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note in so far as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check ; a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we've come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy; now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice; now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood; now is the time to make justice a reality for all God's children. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the movement. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality.
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Mocha
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 1:42 pm
Nineteen sixty-three is not and end, but a beginning. And those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content, will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. This offense we share mounted to storm the battlements of injustice must be carried forth by a biracial army. We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?: We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "for whites only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of excessive trials and tribulation. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
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Mocha
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 1:43 pm
Go back to Mississippi; go back to Alabama; go back to Louisiana; go back to the slums and ghettos of the northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can, and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. So I say to you, my friends, that even though we must face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed - we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, sons of former slaves and sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day, even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today! I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places shall be made plain, and the crooked places shall be made straight and the glory of the Lord will be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hear out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to go to jail together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning-"my country 'tis of thee; sweet land of liberty; of thee I sing; land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride; from every mountain side, let freedom ring"-and if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that. Let freedom ring from the Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi, from every mountainside, let freedom ring. And when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and hamlet, from every state and city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children - black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Catholics and Protestants - will be able to join hands and to sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last, free at last; thank God Almighty, we are free at last." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Zules
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 1:58 pm
Thanks for posting this Mocha! What a wonderful leader he was, what a terrible loss. I posted this earlier in another thread: Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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Whoami
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 1:58 pm
<rubs goosebumps on her arms> Wow. What an incredible man. What courage it took to stand up and make that speech, knowing there were probably hate-mongers in that crowd. I was almost physically sick last night when I read that some white-supremist groups had gone door to door and put their hate-filled literature on each door. I'm so glad that kind of crap didn't hit my porch. I'd have gone livid. I wouldn't want that kind of crap in my house, not even in my trash can. I'd have had to walk it out to the curbside receptacle. Then gone inside to wash my hands vigorously. Has our country improved? Have the sons of former slaves and former slave owners sat down at a table of brotherhood? I hope so. We've come such a long way, but we sure have a long way to go yet.
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Pamy
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 2:00 pm
Thanks Mojo, great thread!
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Mocha
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 2:01 pm
Ditto that Who, got a long way go. Zules I saw that and it's very true.
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Zules
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 2:18 pm
A few of my other favorites.... We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools. When you are right you cannot be too radical; when you are wrong, you cannot be too conservative. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree. Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase. History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
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Jan
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 2:31 pm
The words are magnificent but even they can't convey the power of the man himself. To hear him speak the words...that is real goosebump material. What charisma the man had! What a great soul he was and is.
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Faerygdds
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 2:31 pm
Note to self: Do not visit this thread again while at work... I started to cry! Everyone keeps asking me what's wrong! Sometimes I hate being a big softie! Thanks for posting this Mocha, I have never seen it in it's entirety.
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Mocha
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 2:35 pm
Oh I'm sorry Faery. To hear it and to read it, <sigh> is just moving.
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Zules
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 2:39 pm
Jan, I couldn't agree with you more. Even when I read the words, I hear his voice in my head speaking them. My memory of this great man is very vivid. Faery, we love that you're a softie!
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Tater
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 2:40 pm
Thanks Mo! Everytime I read it, I get goosebumps. What a loss for humanity.
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Fanny
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 2:41 pm
Thank you, Mocha.
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Faerygdds
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 2:49 pm
I know... I could hear his voice as well. I think that's why I started to cry. Why I'm still sniffling -- fighting back tears. Because of what we lost -- because of dreams that while we strive for them, we have not yet achieved them. It just makes me sad. I read an article over lunch about this famous speech. His oldest daughter was 6 when she heard him say these words. At one point she knew that he was talking about her and her siblings, but she did not understand what "content of their character" meant. She said that her mother had to explain it to her. Not because she was afraid to ask her father, but because he was too busy. Not busy with the movement, but because when he spent time at home he was too busy playing with his children to preach to them... I can't get that out of my head. He was such a great leader... a great man... and a great father...

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Herckleperckle
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 3:19 pm
I was a 10th grader in 1963 and I remember those times vividly. His speeches were masterpieces that first moved a people, then moved a nation. He was a man among men. I am pleased to honor his memory today.

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Mware
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 3:24 pm
Very moving words, Mocha. Thank you for reminding us of them.
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Whoami
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 3:52 pm
The reason I had to rub the goosebumps on my arms is because I too could hear the passion of his voice as I read that speech. As I said, what an incredible man.
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Sisalou
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 4:06 pm
Mocha, I am so glad you posted his speech. It moves me deeply. Hopefully one day his dreams will be realized. This day is a reminder that we must always work on this, we must never forget him. I have a beautiful "new age" c.d. called MoodFood by MoodSwings. It was made in 92' and one of the songs includes Martin Luther King reciting part of his speech. Here is a link about the c.d.: http://www.gdforum.com/store/music/gdcdmsmf.html
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Calamity
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 4:40 pm
Mocha, thank you for posting that. I 've read a couple of biographies of Dr. King - he was a very complex man. There was also a book out just last year that detailed the genesis and impact of his "I Have a Dream" speech. I think sometimes it's very easy for people of my generation, who were either too young or not yet born, to fully understand what the '60s civil rights movement meant and did to America. It can be difficult to look past stereotyped and/or idealized impressions of the time or to tune out the pop culture and media filters that so influence our perspectives. And I think that can make if tough to recognize the relevance Dr. King's speech has today.
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Adven
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 5:09 pm
Dr. King has always been my hero and I normally reject the idea of having a stranger as a hero. I lived through that time and I believe whole-heartedly that America was an inch away from a full scale race riot and Dr. King held the match. That he was able to preach a message of passive resistance and tolerance, while knowing the bigotry still inherent in most whites, speaks volumes about the man. The "I have a dream" speech still sends chills down the spine of most people, myself included, but I hope we realize he was much, much more than that particular speech.
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Yankee_In_Ca
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 5:50 pm
Thanks, Mocha for posting this. I've read and heard the speech in its entirety numerous times, but it's so often shortened and excerpted... So moving to read. I forwarded it to a few of my family and friends today. Yankee P.S. -- I agree that it's nearly impossible to read the words without hearing his voice in my head.
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Mocha
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 5:54 pm
Important Dates in the Life Of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 1929 --Born in Atlanta, Georgia on January 15 to Alberta Williams King and Rev. Martin Luther King, Sr. 1935-1944 --Dr. King attended and finished his early education at David T. Howard Elementary School and Atlanta University Laboratory School. He attended Booker T. Washington High School and left before graduation due to his acceptance and early admission in Atlanta's Morehouse College program for advanced placement In the Fall of 1944. He was 15 years of age. 1942 --James Farmer organized C.O.R.E. (The Congress of Racial Equality), Spring, 1942. 1943 --The first lunch counter sit-ins took place in Chicago, Illinois at Jack Spratt's Coffee Shop, May 14, 1943. 1945 --The Japanese surrendered on September 2, 1945, ending World War II. --Ebony magazine published its first issue on November 1, 1945. 1946 --The U.S. Supreme Court banned segregation in interstate bus travel on June 3, 1946. --Race riots occurred in Athens, Alabama on Aug 10 and in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 29, 1946. --The National Committee on Civil Rights was created by President Harry Truman to investigate racism in America, December 5, 1946. 1947 --"Freedom Riders" made up of an interracial group tested the laws of interstate bus travel in the segregated South, April 9, 1947. --Jackie Robinson became the first African-American to play major league baseball as a third baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers club, April 15, 1947. --Dr. King decided to become a minister and delivered his first prepared sermon in his father's church, Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, at age 18 in the Summer of 1947. --President Truman's Committee on Civil Rights condemned racial injustices towards Blacks in America. A report was issued on October 29, 1947, entitled "To Secure These Rights." 1948 --A. Philip Randolph pointed the way for nonviolent protest to segregation in the U.S. Armed Forces, March 31, 1948. --Dr. King was ordained as a Baptist minister and received his B.A. degree in Sociology from Morehouse College in June at the age of 19. In September he entered Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pennsylvania. --Inspired by the preachings of Dr. A.J. Muste and Dr. Mordecai Johnson on the life and teachings of Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. King was moved to study intensely Gandhi's writings and movement while still a student at Crozer Theological Seminary, September 1948 - June 1951. 1949 --William L. Dawson, Democratic Congressman from Illinois, became the first Black to head a standing committee in Congress as Chairperson of the House Expenditures Committee, January 18, 1949. --Judge William H. Hastie was named Judge of U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, October 15, 1949. 1950 --Dr. Charles Drew, the father of the blood bank, died April 1, 1950. --Dr. Carter G. Woodson, the father of black history, died April 3, 1950. --Gwendolyn Brooks was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for her poetry, May 1, 1950. --Dr. Ralph J. Bunche received the Nobel Peace Prize for his mediations in the Palestine dispute. He became the first Black to receive a Nobel citation, September 22, 1950.
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Mocha
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 5:57 pm
1951 --Dr. King graduated from Crozer Theological Seminary with his B.D. degree at age 22 in June, 1951. --Dr. Ralph J. Bunche was appointed Undersecretary of the United Nations, the highest ranking American in the U.N. Secretariat, December 25, 1951. 1953 --Dr. King married Coretta Scott, June 18, 1953. --The first bus boycott started in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in this year on June 19, 1953. --Riots erupted in Chicago at Thrumbull Park Housing project site on August 4, 1953. 1954 --On May 17, 1954, the U.S Supreme Court, in a landmark decision, ruled unanimously in Brown vs Board of Education that racial segregation in the public schools of America was unconstitutional. --Mary Church Terrell, outstanding black civil rights activist, died on July 24, 1954. --Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. became first black general in the U.S. Air Force, October 27, 1954. --Dr. King became the pastor of Dexter Avenue Church in Montgomery, Alabama on October 31, 1954. 1955 --Marion Anderson became the first black to sing at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City, January 7, 1955. --Roy Wilkins became the executive director of the NAACP on April 11, 1955, succeeding Walter White, who died on March 21, 1955. --Mary McLeod Bethune, educator and civil rights leader, died on May 18, 1955. --The U.S. Supreme Court ordered desegregation of the public schools "with all deliberate speed" on May 31, 1955. This order implemented the May 17, 1954 decision. --Dr. King received his Ph.D in Systematic Theology from Boston University on June 5, 1955. --Emmett Till, age 14, was lynched and brutally defaced in Money, Mississippi on August 28, 1955. --Dr. King's first child was born - Yolanada Denise (born in Montgomery, Alabama, November 17, 1955). --The Interstate Commerce Commission banned segregation in buses and all waiting rooms involved in interstate travel, November 25, 1955. --Mrs. Rosa Parks, a 42 year old seamstress, refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a Montgomery bus and was arrested. Dr. King became involved in the incident. As a means of protest the Montgomery Improvement Association was organized, December 4, 1955. Dr. King was elected president. On December 5, 1955, the famous boycott was started. This was the catalytic event which started Dr. King on the road to become America's crusader and most famous civil rights leader. 1956 --Dr. King's home was bombed January 30, 1956 - no one was hurt. --On February 21, 1956, a suit was filed in U.S. District Court asking that Montgomery's segregation laws be declared unconstitutional. On June 4 the U.S. District Court ruled that racial segregation on the city bus line was unconstitutional. On November 13, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed this ruling prohibiting segregation on buses by declaring Alabama's laws unconstitutional. Montgomery's victory came on December 21, 1956 when, for the first time, black passengers could legally take any seat on the city's buses. Public buses were finally desegregated. --On Deceber 27, 1956, Tallahassee, Florida followed and desegregated its buses after a six month boycott.
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Mocha
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 6:00 pm
1957 --An unexploded bomb was discovered on Dr. King's front porch on January 27, 1957. --On January 12, mostly concerned ministers, labor leaders, lawyers, and activists got together and formed the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in an effort to gain information and strategy for ending segregation in their cities and towns. The meeting was held in New Orleans, Louisiana, and Dr. King was elected president, February 14, 1957. --The Congress of the United States passed the Civil Rights Act of 1957 on September 9, 1957. This was the first civil rights legislation since 1875. --President Eisenhower sent in federal troops to enforce court-ordered integration of Little Rock Arkansas' schools. Nine black students were escorted into the school by court order on September 24 and 25, 1957. --Martin Luther King III was born on October 23, 1957. 1958 --Dr. King published his book, Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story (New York: Harper and Brothers, September 17, 1958). Dr. King was almost killed by a deranged black woman, who stabbed him as he was autographing his new book in a department store in Harlem, New York, September 20, 1958. 1959 --Dr. King and Coretta went to India as a guest of Prime Minister Nehru in efforts to study and learn more about Gandhi's philosophy and techniques of nonviolence from February 2 through March 10, 1959. --Dr. King published his book, The Measure of a Man (Philadelphia: Christian Education Press, 1959). 1960 --The sit-in demonstrations gained strength, with Greensboro, North Carolina's Woolworth's lunch counter as their focal point, February 1, 1960. --The city of San Antonio, Texas became the first major southern city to integrate its lunch counters due to the sit-in demonstrations on March 16, 1960. --The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) was formally organized, mainly as a college student protest group. Its founding date was April 15, 1960 at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina. --President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Civil Rights Act of 1960 into law on May 6, 1960. --Dr. King was arrested for breaking the state of Georgia's trespassing law while picketing. He was transferred to Reidsville State Prison but was released on $2000 bond on October 19, 1960. 1961 --Dexter Scott, Dr. King's third child was born January 30, 1961. --C.O.R.E. (Congress of Racial Equality) tested the newly established interstate desegregation laws. An integrated group of Freedom Riders left Washington, DC on Greyhound buses, and, upon arrival near Anniston, Alabama, the bus was burned, and the riders were beaten, May 4, 1961. --Thurgood Marshall, chief counsel for the NAACP, was appointed to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals by President John F. Kennedy on September 1, 1961. 1962 --Riots broke out on the campus at the University of Mississippi, requiring 12,000 federal marshals to restore order when James Meredith enrolled at the Oxford Campus under court order on September 30, 1962. 1963 --Dr. King's forth child, Bernice Albertine, was born March 28, 1963. --Birmingham, Alabama police chief, Eugene "Bull" Connor, became a symbol of extreme racism when he broadcast to the entire world his methods of stopping the Black protest movement. He used dogs and fire hoses on peaceful marchers, among them young children and women, April 3, 1963. --Sit-in demonstrations were held in Birmingham, Alabama to protest public accommodations in eating facilities. Dr. King was arrested during one of the demonstrations, April 12, 1963. --In a moment of reflection, Dr. King, while in his Birmingham cell, wrote about his concerns and criticism on the pace of justice in civil rights for Black Americans. These thoughts were expressed in his moving "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," April 16, 1963. --Governor George Wallace stood in the door of the University of Alabama, refusing the entrance of Black students, June 11, 1963. --Civil Rights Leader Medgar Evers was assassinated in front of his home in Jackson, Mississippi on June 12, 1963. --On August 28, 1963, after meeting with President John F. Kennedy, Dr. King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to a crowd estimated at 250,000. --Dr. King published his book, The Strength to Love (Harper and Row Publishers, September 1, 1963). --The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama became the site of a viscous attack on Sunday, September 15, 1963. Four little girls were killed when a bomb exploded inside the church where the children were seated. Dr. King performed a eulogy for three of the girls on September 18. --President Kennedy was assassinated on November 22, 1963.
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Mocha
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 6:03 pm
1964 --Time Magazine honored Dr. King as "Man of the Year" with a feature story and cover photo, January 3, 1964. --Dr. King published his book, Why We Can't Wait (New American Library Publishers, June 4, 1964). --A new plank in the civil rights movement started with Black and White students, called the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO). They initiated massive voter-registration drives in the Summer of 1964. --Dr. King was present at the White House while President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Public Accommodation and Fair Employment sections to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 on July 2, 1964. --Three civil rights workers, James Chaney (black) and Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner (both white) were killed on a trip through Philadelphia, Mississippi, August 4, 1964. --On December 10, 1964, Dr. King received the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. 1965 --Malcolm X was assassinated in New York City on February 21, 1965. --The Edmund Pettus Bridge incident took place in Selma, Alabama. The marchers were billy-clubbed, tear-gassed, and whipped with cattle prods, March 7, 1965. --The Selma to Montgomery March, which took in over 25,000 marchers, was held from March 21 to 25, 1965, with the protection of federal troops. A white civil rights worker, Mrs. Viola Liuzzo was killed driving some of the black marchers back to Selma on March 25, 1965. --The 1965 Voting Rights Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, August 6, 1965. --The Watts Riots erupted in California, August 11 and 12, 1965. The National Guard was called in to stop America's worst single racial disturbance. Thirty-five people died. 1966 --Robert C. Weaver became the first Black to serve in the cabinet of our nation. He was sworn in as Secretary of Housing and Urban Affairs, January 13, 1966. --The Supreme Court of the United States ruled that any poll tax levied was unconstitutional, March 7, 1966. --Dr. King came out against our government's policy in Vietnam May 16, 1966. --James Meredith was shot on a 220 mile "March Against Fear" from Memphis, Tennessee to Jackson Mississippi on June 6, 1966. --SNCC leader Stokely Carmichael used the then-militant term, "Black Power," in public for the first time in Greenwood, Mississippi, June 27, 1966. --The National Guard was called in when Summer Riots, between July 18-23, 1966, broke out in Omaha, Nebraska, Chicago, Illinois, Cleveland and Dayton, Ohio. --Dr. King marched on the issue for open housing in Chicago and was stoned by an angry crowd on August 6, 1966. --Edward Brooke, Republican of Massachusetts, was elected as a United States Senator, the first Black senator since Reconstruction, November 8, 1966. 1967 --Dr. King published his book, Where Do We Go from Here? Chaos or Community (Harper and Row Publishers, January 1967). --Summer riots took the lives of forty-three, including 324 injured in Detroit, Michigan. Twenty-three died and 725 were injured in the Newark, New Jersey riots. Dr. King, Roy Wilkins, and Whitney Young, Jr. came out in an appeal to stop the riots that took place from May 1 through October 1, 1967. --Thurgood Marshall was confirmed by United States Senate to sit as an Associate Justice and first Black on the U.S. Supreme Court, June 23, 1967. 1968 --The National Advisory Committee on Civil Disorders (known as the Kerner Commission) came out with a statement concerning racism and riots in America on March 2, 1968. --Dr. King went to Memphis, Tennessee to lead a march in support of striking sanitation workers, April 3, 1968. --Dr. King delivered his last speech, entitled "I've Been to the Mountain Top," at the Mason Temple, the national headquarters of the Church of God in Christ, in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 3, 1968. --On April 4, 1968, Dr. King's life was ended by an assassin's s bullet while he was on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. --On April 5, President Lyndon B. Johnson decreed that Sunday, April 7, 1968 be a day of national mourning in honor of Dr. King. --His body was viewed by mourners on the campus of Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, April 7, 1968. His funeral was eulogized at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta on April 9, 1968. He was laid to rest at the South View Cemetery. More than 300,000 people marched through Atlanta with his horse-drawn coffin, April 9, 1968. --In the midst of the sadness of 1968, President Johnson signed another piece of civil rights legislation banning racial discrimination in the sale and rental of housing to Blacks and minorities, April 11, 1968. --On June 5, 1968, Robert Kennedy, the brother of the late president, John F. Kennedy, was assassinated in Los Angeles while campaigning for the presidency of the United States. --Dr. King's assassin was identified as James Earl Ray, who was arrested at a London airport on June 8, 1968. Ray was later sentenced to 99 years in prison for this crime on May 10, 1969. He died in prison of liver failure on April 23, 1998. --Shirley Chisholm of Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, New York became the first black woman elected to Congress, November 5, 1968.
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Whoami
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 7:05 pm
I am just livid. I went out to the store this afternoon. A truck pulled out in front of me, and the SOB was flying an American Flag on one side of his truck, and a Confederate Flag on the other side. I just can't fathom how a person can have so much hate in their soul (if they even have one). And where in the hell is a person like that coming from that they actually think one race is more superior than the other? What freaking planet are they from? I'm so sorry to post this on this thread. I hope it doesn't spoil the spirit of the thread. Its obvious that jerk flew those flags because of the day. And I suppose he succeeded in his goal with me. He pushed my buttons. I'm sure his only goal was to piss off one part of the population, and get hurrahs from the other part. I'm so ashamed to be White right now.
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Mocha
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 7:09 pm
Who, you should never feel ashamed of that. Ever. And lots of people fly the Confederate Flag year round.
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Whoami
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 7:16 pm
I know you're right Mocha. And I appreciate your sentiments. Its just when I think of how many injustices have been bestowed on other races and cultures, it seems like its always the White people that did it. The Native Americans, the African Americans, the Maori...the list goes on. It just makes my skin crawl to think of it.
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Hippyt
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 7:17 pm
Ah,Who,I'm sure he pissed a lot of people of all colors off. I watched the cutest show earlier with my son. The Disney channel is doing a marathon of The Proud Family for MLK day. It's a cartoon about a black family. The little girl fell and hit her head and had a dream. (a la Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz) She was back in 1955,and couldn't understand why people of different colors didn't interact. When she and her white friend sat together in the classroom,the teacher was going to send them to the principal. They stuck together,and the class ended up joining them. They end up having a sit in on the steps of the school,with the national guard showing up. (kinda say like Little Rock) She gets her courage up and stands up and delivers King's I have a dream speech. And the crowd joins in a love fest. In the end,she wakes up and all her family and friends (of all shades) are there for her. A very good message in a cartoon,if ya ask me!
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Hippyt
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 7:19 pm
Oh,she didn't do the whole speech. Only the end,starting with let freedom ring.
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Grannyg
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 7:22 pm
Mocha, I really enjoyed reading all of this about MLK. Of course in school we have a whole week but I've just never taken the time to read the whole thing. I mean the kids do little plays about it and all but being that they are only in the second grade a lot is condensed. Thanks.
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Halfunit
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 7:38 pm
Who - don't worry about a piece of nylon. If you were to cut that flag up, nothing would change. It's people that need to change.
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Mak1
| Monday, January 19, 2004 - 9:33 pm
Thanks Mocha and everyone who took time to post the words of MLK. I, too, can hear and see him in my mind when I read his words again.
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