1965
2008
I'd guess very few people need to be reminded that pea-brained hatred is still alive and well THROUGHOUT THE COUNTRY and not just here in the South; still, I'd like to think there's a bit of hope, and that over time tolerance will prevail...even if it seems that we're almost talking about geologic time.
Taking a look around the internets this morning, I came across this article noting how Martin Luther King, Jr. has become more myth than human, and how that does a disservice to himself and the struggle for civil rights...which was a bit more than a single speech, no matter how good that speech was.
I wonder how many people realize, for instance, that the ugliness in Selma occurred two years AFTER the 1963 March on Washington and a year after the signing of the 1964 Civil Rights act. Instead, it seems as if the struggle itself has been condensed into a few discrete events: Little Rock, Lunch Counters, Bus Depots, and a single, albeit moving and stirring, oration. End of story.
Except that, as is usually the case, reality is far more complex and nuanced.
Anyway...
Maybe it'd be better just to point to a couple of things besides the links above to note this holiday--first, an extraordinary interpretation, in song and images of Eyes on the Prize by Mavis Staples
And, second, for those who've never seen the entire address, here's Martin Luther King, Jr.'s I Have a Dream speech--note that it's not particularly lengthy (not quite 20 minutes)...the best speeches usually are similarly terse
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