Dr. Martin Luther King and John F. Kennedy
19 January 2009 12:34 am by Taylor Marsh
It is fitting in so many ways that President-elect Obama’s inauguration follows the celebration of King’s life today. But as Obama today can work with men of all races in peaceful tones and moderation, talking of bringing men together and compromise, Dr. King’s rhetoric was forged in fire and brimstone on the altar of confrontation. King had to have his day before Obama could have his. Seems King is destined to pave the way, just as he did for another Democratic president back in his day.
Dr. King was forever challenging the U.S. media, but there weren’t many in the establishment that didn’t feel Dr. King’s heat. It’s certain that President John F. Kennedy did. But King lived in times of volatility, cataclysmic change and violent national shifts. He was a powerfully effective man of peace in a time of country and cultural wars.
Some believe that President Kennedy’s presidency was owed, at least in part, to Dr. Martin Luther King. In a moment of stunning political pressure inside his own camp, candidate Kennedy reached out to Martin Luther King when he was convicted of a probation violation after participating in a diner sit-in in Atlanta, Georgia. Forever the political pragmatist, Kennedy saw the light and interceded on behalf of King to get him released from Reidsville Prison. That, as some tell it, changed history. King as an ally brought out the black vote, helping to defeat Nixon. But there were many other fault lines in 1960, including Texas, Illinois, but especially West Virginia, that played their part, too. So I’ll let you be the judge of whether King helped elect Kennedy. He sure didn’t hurt him. Neither did Kennedy’s pledge to right the wrongs being done to blacks.
However, once president, Kennedy was simply too obsessed with foreign policy issues to turn his attention to the home front. He just didn’t get the importance of King’s fights down south, at first, especially when juxtaposed against the crisis brewing overseas. The challenges escalating between East and West Germany kept JFK’s attention focused on nuclear confrontation, then came the Cuban Missile crisis. But eventually, JFK began to finally understand that the home front matters as much as what’s happening “over there,” especially in the face of horrible prejudice. Kennedy was a man who could change and he did.
Known as the Birmingham Campaign, King altered history and shifted Kennedy’s thinking along with it. His famous “Letter from Birmingham Jail” is now legend. It was King’s incarceration in Birmingham that led Coretta Scott King to call President Kennedy, which resulted in him interceding once again on King’s behalf, forcing the Birmingham bigots to allow King to talk to his wife.
The March on Washington and King’s “I Have a Dream Speech” offered in the video above, worried President Kennedy at the time. He was understandably concerned about violence breaking out, but eventually King won him over. But watching the brutality in Birmingham and the subsequent political push from King and other civil rights leaders changed Kennedy forever. Months before King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, on June 11, 1963, JFK proposed action that would offer “the kind of equality of treatment which we would want for ourselves.”
Good evening, my fellow citizens:
This afternoon, following a series of threats and defiant statements, the presence of Alabama National Guardsmen was required on the University of Alabama to carry out the final and unequivocal order of the United States District Court of the Northern District of Alabama. That order called for the admission of two clearly qualified young Alabama residents who happened to have been born Negro.
That they were admitted peacefully on the campus is due in good measure to the conduct of the students of the University of Alabama, who met their responsibilities in a constructive way.
I hope that every American, regardless of where he lives, will stop and examine his conscience about this and other related incidents. This Nation was founded by men of many nations and backgrounds. It was rounded on the principle that all men are created equal, and that the rights of every man are diminished when the rights of one man are threatened.
Today we are committed to a worldwide struggle to promote and protect the rights of all who wish to be free. And when Americans are sent to Viet-Nam or West Berlin, we do not ask for whites only. It ought to be possible, therefore, for American students of any color to attend any public institution they select without having to be backed up by troops.
It ought to be possible for American consumers of any color to receive equal service in places of public accommodation, such as hotels and restaurants and theaters and retail stores, without being forced to resort to demonstrations in the street, and it ought to be possible for American citizens of any color to register and to vote in a free election without interference or fear of reprisal.
It ought to be possible, in short, for every American to enjoy the privileges of being American without regard to his race or his color. In short, every American ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated. But this is not the case.
The Negro baby born in America today, regardless of the section of the Nation in which he is born, has about one-half as much chance of completing a high school as a white baby born in the same place on the same day, one-third as much chance of completing college, one-third as much chance of becoming a professional man, twice as much chance of becoming unemployed, about one-seventh as much chance of earning $10,000 a year, a life expectancy which is 7 years shorter, and the prospects of earning only half as much.
This is not a sectional issue. Difficulties over segregation and discrimination exist in every city, in every State of the Union, producing in many cities a rising tide of discontent that threatens the public safety. Nor is this a partisan issue. In a time of domestic crisis men of good will and generosity should be able to unite regardless of party or politics. This is not even a legal or legislative issue alone. It is better to settle these matters in the courts than on the streets, and new laws are needed at every level, but law alone cannot make men see right.
We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution.
The heart of the question is whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities, whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated. If an American, because his skin is dark, cannot eat lunch in a restaurant open to the public, if he cannot send his children to the best public school available, if he cannot vote for the public officials who represent him, if, in short, he cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want, then who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place? Who among us would then be content with the counsels of patience and delay?
One hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free. They are not yet freed from the bonds of injustice. They are not yet freed from social and economic oppression. And this Nation, for all its hopes and all its boasts, will not be fully free until all its citizens are free.
We preach freedom around the world, and we mean it, and we cherish our freedom here at home, but are we to say to the world, and much more importantly, to each other that this is a land of the free except for the Negroes; that we have no second-class citizens except Negroes; that we have no class or cast system, no ghettoes, no master race except with respect to Negroes?
Now the time has come for this Nation to fulfill its promise. The events in Birmingham and elsewhere have so increased the cries for equality that no city or State or legislative body can prudently choose to ignore them.
The fires of frustration and discord are burning in every city, North and South, where legal remedies are not at hand. Redress is sought in the streets, in demonstrations, parades, and protests which create tensions and threaten violence and threaten lives.
We face, therefore, a moral crisis as a country and as a people. It cannot be met by repressive police action. It cannot be left to increased demonstrations in the streets. It cannot be quieted by token moves or talk. It is a time to act in the Congress, in your State and local legislative body and, above all, in all of our daily lives.
It is not enough to pin the blame on others, to say this is a problem of one section of the country or another, or deplore the fact that we face. A great change is at hand, and our task, our obligation, is to make that revolution, that change, peaceful and constructive for all.
Those who do nothing are inviting shame as well as violence. Those who act boldly are recognizing right as well as reality.
Next week I shall ask the Congress of the United States to act, to make a commitment it has not fully made in this century to the proposition that race has no place in American life or law. The Federal judiciary has upheld that proposition in a series of forthright cases. The executive branch has adopted that proposition in the conduct of its affairs, including the employment of Federal personnel, the use of Federal facilities, and the sale of federally financed housing.
But there are other necessary measures which only the Congress can provide, and they must be provided at this session. The old code of equity law under which we live commands for every wrong a remedy, but in too many communities, in too many parts of the country, wrongs are inflicted on Negro citizens and there are no remedies at law. Unless the Congress acts, their only remedy is in the street.
I am, therefore, asking the Congress to enact legislation giving all Americans the right to be served in facilities which are open to the public–hotels, restaurants, theaters, retail stores, and similar establishments.
This seems to me to be an elementary right. Its denial is an arbitrary indignity that no American in 1963 should have to endure, but many do.
I have recently met with scores of business leaders urging them to take voluntary action to end this discrimination and I have been encouraged by their response, and in the last 2 weeks over 75 cities have seen progress made in desegregating these kinds of facilities. But many are unwilling to act alone, and for this reason, nationwide legislation is needed if we are to move this problem from the streets to the courts.
I am also asking Congress to authorize the Federal Government to participate more fully in lawsuits designed to end segregation in public education. We have succeeded in persuading many districts to de-segregate voluntarily. Dozens have admitted Negroes without violence. Today a Negro is attending a State-supported institution in every one of our 50 States, but the pace is very slow.
Too many Negro children entering segregated grade schools at the time of the Supreme Court’s decision 9 years ago will enter segregated high schools this fall, having suffered a loss which can never be restored. The lack of an adequate education denies the Negro a chance to get a decent job.
The orderly implementation of the Supreme Court decision, therefore, cannot be left solely to those who may not have the economic resources to carry the legal action or who may be subject to harassment.
Other features will be also requested, including greater protection for the right to vote. But legislation, I repeat, cannot solve this problem alone. It must be solved in the homes of every American in every community across our country.
In this respect, I want to pay tribute to those citizens North and South who have been working in their communities to make life better for all. They are acting not out of a sense of legal duty but out of a sense of human decency.
Like our soldiers and sailors in all parts of the world they are meeting freedom’s challenge on the firing line, and I salute them for their honor and their courage.
My fellow Americans, this is a problem which faces us all–in every city of the North as well as the South. Today there are Negroes unemployed, two or three times as many compared to whites, inadequate in education, moving into the large cities, unable to find work, young people particularly out of work without hope, denied equal rights, denied the opportunity to eat at a restaurant or lunch counter or go to a movie theater, denied the right to a decent education, denied almost today the right to attend a State university even though qualified. It seems to me that these are matters which concern us all, not merely Presidents or Congressmen or Governors, but every citizen of the United States.
This is one country. It has become one country because all of us and all the people who came here had an equal chance to develop their talents.
We cannot say to 10 percent of the population that you can’t have that right; that your children can’t have the chance to develop whatever talents they have; that the only way that they are going to get their rights is to go into the streets and demonstrate. I think we owe them and we owe ourselves a better country than that.
Therefore, I am asking for your help in making it easier for us to move ahead and to provide the kind of equality of treatment which we would want ourselves; to give a chance for every child to be educated to the limit of his talents.
As I have said before, not every child has an equal talent or an equal ability or an equal motivation, but they should have the equal right to develop their talent and their ability and their motivation, to make something of themselves.
We have a right to expect that the Negro community will be responsible, will uphold the law, but they have a right to expect that the law will be fair, that the Constitution will be color blind, as Justice Harlan said at the turn of the century.
This is what we are talking about and this is a matter which concerns this country and what it stands for, and in meeting it I ask the support of all our citizens.
Thank you very much.
It took constant campaigning from King, but JFK came to understand that action was required. Kennedy became the first president since Truman to trumpet the cause of civil rights. President John F. Kennedy’s civil rights legislation was met with fierce opposition by the southern delegations of Congress. He was assassinated before it became law. The legislation LBJ finally signed was Kennedy’s hope for a new America. Had John F. Kennedy lived, his civil rights actions would have been met hard in the south during his 1964 campaign. JFK never lived to fight this fight. The legislation LBJ signed was Kennedy’s final vision, and the words LBJ spoke upon the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 encapsulized the moment for history: “We’ve lost the south for a generation.”
King’s eulogy upon JFK’s death proved the respect each man had won from the other and that politicians can change to forge great hopes for those oppressed. He said that John F. Kennedy lived his life to “move forward with more determination to rid our nation of the vestiges of racial segregation and discrimination.”
King made the men of the 1960s come his way. His life force was gargantuan. His courage unbounded. His faith guided his life, because he knew his soul would live on and on. His memory has as well.
Edited from post first published 1.15.07.
Among the opportunities lost in the sixties that you so well document, I also bemoan the covering over of MLK’s cogent message on behalf of the poor of all races.
A declining standard of living for over thirty years for all but the very few is the sad, inevitable result of the corporate media glossing over this critical aspect of Dr. King’s legacy.
Good Morning everybody, Happy MLK day.
Well, we have until noon tomorrow to see how many crooks the shrub pardons. I’m sure he will leave a big pile of shit before he slinks out of town. Lets hope he doesn’t do to much damage in the 20 some hours of this nightmare.
Sure is quite this morning. Everybody must be hungover from the concert yesterday.
It seems that time after time a figure will rise up and confront America. Their very being and truth force us to look into the mirror of destiny and realize we are not the nation or People we could and should be.
Their inner strength and understanding of what’s right and wrong forcing us to re-examine and start to change the very core of ourselves to accept the greatness and goodness that we were and are ment to be.
And when we start to awaken to the wonderful gift they bring us, lifting us from darkness and small mindedness to live the words of the contract between we the governed with those we elect to govern and the beautiful document that spells it all out and how it applies to ALL Americans….we kill them.
Can you even begin to imagine the world where John, Martin and Bobby lived to the fullness of their years. The good things they would have inspired us to do. Both as a nation and People and individuals.
I have been won over. Not so much by Obama but by the many people I know and have met who supported him.
The simple hope for the reclaiming of the America that should be.
Well said secular, and Happy MLK day.
I’ve never seen MLK day as a “have a happy MLK day” sort of thing. It has always been a day of deepest sadness at the utter waste and stupidity of the loss of so far the greatest hero my country has produce in my life time. And if not the greatest certainly ONE of the greatest Americans of all time.
This time around MLK day is a happy day. We have taken a step in the direction of the dream he saw and worked for. This may be only a small step, but a step it is. Kids who are five or six years old will know that no matter what color you are you can be President. This is a big change that will help move this country into the 21st century.
It’s hard to overstate the significance of today and tomorrow, and their juxtaposition. It is fitting — and perhaps ordained — that Obama’s inaugural take place the day after we celebrate MLK’s life. Like Tavis Smiley said yesterday on MTP, tomorrow will not represent the fulfillment of MLK’s dream, but it represents a very large down-payment.
I often wonder what MLK would be advocating for today if he were still alive. W.E.B. DuBois wrote that “the problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color line.” Today, in this 21st Century, I believe that the problem is the “class line.” That is not to say that racial problems don’t persist. But it is to say that the most bedeviling issues we face today don’t have a racial aspect to them. Lack of quality education affects the poor everywhere, whether you are black in Anacostia, white in Appalachia, or Native American just about anywhere.
So to echo Smiley once more, just as Frederick Douglass pushed Lincoln and MLK pushed JFK and LBJ, it’s up to us to push Obama to complete MLK’s vision. That includes advocacy on behalf of the poor, like JimR correctly notes. It includes health care for all, and improving our educational system. These, I believe, are the things that MLK would be fighting for today. And, luckily, I believe that these are the things that Obama cares deeply about.
After meeting with a certain group of reformers trying to persuade him to support their goals, FDR said “You’ve convinced me. I want to do it. Now MAKE me do it.” That is our task with Obama, and we must never shirk from it.
That raises an interesting question of how one agitates for change: violently, incessantly and aggressively; or patiently, constructively, and respectfully? In the spirit of MLK, I prefer the latter approach. Everyone has their favorite MLK quotation, but mine is: “Let us realize the arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.”
Sorry for the heavy tone, but I get very reflective on MLK Day. Have a blessed day, everyone.
mornin’
Hero Pilot And Family Invited To Inauguration
An aide to President-elect Barack Obama said Sunday evening that all five members of the Flight 1549 crew have been invited to the inauguration Tuesday.
http://www.mercurynews.com/presidentelect/ci_11485823
…sorry abut the OT but I thought that was cool.
I sure hope so.
My apprentice in the glass studio is a Black guy in his late twenties. He goes by “Lucky”, has dreads he’s been growing since he was 18 and works out about every other day so he is built like some young GAWD come to earth.
People’s reactions to the old, fat, biker looking white guy with the Rasta man are always priceless.
It was the strangest thing for this pushing 60 year old child of the 60.70s to find someone who for lack of a better word is my brother in this young Reggae looking and listening Rasta.
He was a big part of bringing me around on Obama.
I look at the young people here in the town I live in and race dosen’t seem to matter to them at all.
Don’t get me wrong, there is still plenty of it, and more vicious and violent strains of it running through some of the young.
But I really think the very viciousness of it is a sign of it’s pending demise.
There will always be those who out of the emptyness and failur of their own lives need someone to look down on, but I think their days of being able to influance society as a movement aka the repugnantklan, are just about over.
So yes this is a day to look forward with hope.
But wouldn’t it have been nice if MLK, JFK(OK he would have been PRETTY old by now) and RFK were here to celebrate with us?
secular, like you I am a 60 year old biker who has lived in the club world for 35 years. For the last ten years I have been a member of a club that is half black and white. I have learned a lot from my brothers, and have come along way from my early years in clubs. For me to sit in the club house yesterday and watch the concert and see bad ass bikers get tears in their eyes was a wonderful thing. It shows that people can change for the better, but still keep their core beliefs.
A Prayer for the Nation and Our Next President, Barack Obama
By The Rt. Rev. V. Gene Robinson, Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire
Opening Inaugural Event
Lincoln Memorial, Washington, DC
January 18, 2009
Welcome to Washington! The fun is about to begin, but first, please join me in pausing for a moment, to ask God’s blessing upon our nation and our next president.
O God of our many understandings, we pray that you will…
Bless us with tears – for a world in which over a billion people exist on less than a dollar a day, where young women from many lands are beaten and raped for wanting an education, and thousands die daily from malnutrition, malaria, and AIDS.
Bless us with anger – at discrimination, at home and abroad, against refugees and immigrants, women, people of color, gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people.
Bless us with discomfort – at the easy, simplistic “answers†we’ve preferred to hear from our politicians, instead of the truth, about ourselves and the world, which we need to face if we are going to rise to the challenges of the future.
Bless us with patience – and the knowledge that none of what ails us will be “fixed†anytime soon, and the understanding that our new president is a human being, not a messiah.
Bless us with humility – open to understanding that our own needs must always be balanced with those of the world.
Bless us with freedom from mere tolerance – replacing it with a genuine respect and warm embrace of our differences, and an understanding that in our diversity, we are stronger.
Bless us with compassion and generosity – remembering that every religion’s God judges us by the way we care for the most vulnerable in the human community, whether across town or across the world.
And God, we give you thanks for your child Barack, as he assumes the office of President of the United States.
Give him wisdom beyond his years, and inspire him with Lincoln’s reconciling leadership President Kennedy’s ability to enlist our best efforts, and Dr. King’s dream of a nation for ALL the people.
Give him a quiet heart, for our Ship of State needs a steady, calm captain in these times.
Give him stirring words, for we will need to be inspired and motivated to make the personal and common sacrifices necessary to facing the challenges ahead.
Make him color-blind, reminding him of his own words that under his leadership, there will be neither red nor blue states, but the United States.
Help him remember his own oppression as a minority, drawing on that experience of discrimination, that he might seek to change the lives of those who are still its victims.
Give him the strength to find family time and privacy, and help him remember that even though he is president, a father only gets one shot at his daughters’ childhoods.
And please, God, keep him safe. We know we ask too much of our presidents, and we’re asking FAR too much of this one. We know the risk he and his wife are taking for all of us, and we implore you, O good and great God, to keep him safe. Hold him in the palm of your hand – that he might do the work we have called him to do, that he might find joy in this impossible calling, and that in the end, he might lead us as a nation to a place of integrity, prosperity and peace.
AMEN.
sec and angels81
What you experienced, I believe is the key to racial tolerance in this country. It is much harder to misunderstand, stereotype, or hate another race when you don’t ‘personally’ know them. When you don’t have personal interaction with other races, its easier to have a ‘us’ vs ‘them’ mentality.
Growing up with a multi-racial family and atmosphere, it still seems normal to me, but many people still have not experienced it. Many people still don’t have multi-racial gatherings or holiday dinners or church events. When this begins happening, not as a choice, but as the ‘norm’, we will all see true tolerance and unity in this country.
I’ve been around folks from everywhere my whole life. However my family has always been about as racist and xenophobic as you’re ever gonna meet.
ogenec | 01.19.2009 – 10:15 am | #
Thanks for posting this, however, I must include this information:
Robinson’s invocation was CENSORED from the event itself (see IN THE NEWS) and from the HBO special.
The sound was turned off except for the monitors right up at the stage and it was not shown on HBO. Only a few people at the event, who were standing up close, could hear the his invocation.
The inclusion of Robinson was just a publicity stunt to quiet the uproar from BO’s use of Warren for the inaguration.
Thanks BO – I was wondering if the speeches that referred to civil rights for ALL Americans included me – now I know from your organizations actions that it is indeed “just words”.
BTW, for those who think it was a microphone malfunction – try to find another 4 minute tech problem in this production.
secularhumanizinevoluter | 01.19.2009 – 10:39 am | #
No, I mean not just ‘being around’. But has your family had Thanksgiving dinner or Xmas dinner or church service, or birthday, graduation parties, etc.. with other races. That is what I was talking about. Personal events, where people discuss their kids, their dreams, their lives. Through these things, they can learn that we all have more in common than we have differences.
The inclusion of Robinson was just a publicity stunt to quiet the uproar from BO’s use of
Warren for the inaguration.
AliceP | 01.19.2009 – 10:40 am | #
So it was a publicity stunt that they purposely censored? So they wanted to quiet “people like you” by doing something that pissed you off? That doesn’t make sense. More likely HBO screwed up.
I agree George.
I think in the DVD that will be sold at a Wal-Mart near you that HBO will include it.
Also if you read the release from HBO they are VERY vague regarding where the information came from and honestly? I just don’t see it being a choice supported by Obama or his team.
AliceP | 01.19.2009 – 10:40 am | #
It’s not the same but here’s a video of Rev. Robinson giving the invocation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWWAnitUCw4
AliceP | 01.19.2009 – 10:40 am | #
This was all over the Americablog.com site yesterday. I won’t repost some of the really nasty toned comments. Which since the Rick Warren fiasco, the comments section has started to sound more and more like NoQuarter.com
But I will point out two things. Robinson gave his prayer, and then there was a 10 minute delay before the next portion of the program. I cannot imagine any producer at HBO filming a LIVE show with a 10 minute gap of blank space. And, this was a HBO decision.
Secondly, when I first read about this, I looked up Robinson’s actually prayer.
http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/faith_and_politics/gene_robinsons_prayer_for_pres.html#more
I have to wonder if the last paragraph had something to do with it. Praying for the safety against assassination for Obama, Michelle and the girls, would have had a profound affect on the huge crowd and the Obama’s. Would the whole event, that was very upbeat and exhilarating to all of us, have had the same affect, if it had started with those words? Or would we have seen tears of pain, fear and sadness on the 500K faces in the crowd?
I tend to agree with GeoT, but I went to the link provided in the news, and it says the decision not to broadcast Robinson was made by the Obama transition team. I guess the story is still developing so we’ll have to see how it plays out.
I added the prayer because I hadn’t seen it here and the sentiments expressed were just wonderful.
I added the prayer because I hadn’t seen it here and the sentiments expressed were just
wonderful.
ogenec | 01.19.2009 – 10:58 am | #
from my experience doing productions chances are the cameras were rolling during his invocation and they have it on tape (or some more up to date storage medium). Hopefully they will release it if they did record it.
I’d say education must be the next frontier. I haven’t a clue as to what the solution is, but it’s obvious to me that’s the area where we are completely failing in terms of true equality for all.
I couldn’t get this video to work in the In The News, but its pretty good.
Recorded by celebrities, Its for the national day of service, and asking everyone to make a pledge.
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=50632298
Audiegrl | 01.19.2009 – 10:43 am | #
I couldn’t agree more. From the time I actually started tyhinking for myself I thought my family was nuts. Then college then the Army and I KNEW my family was nuts. This last Holiday we had a cook off between kucky and me. AMAZING food. Funniest thing I’d heard in a long time was after he’d tried my Beans, Greens and Cornbread he said I was the Blackest White guy he’d ever met.
secularhumanizinevoluter | 01.19.2009 – 11:34 am | #
LMAO. Now THAT’S what I’m talking about! It reminds me of the Thanksgiving I invited my friend and her folks to dinner. Her 65 year old dad was scared to try my collard greens, and by the end of the day, it eat more of them than anyone, and even took a plate home.
Obama screws the gays once again.
A new US President will be inaugurated in …
Days Hrs Mins Secs
http://primepuzzle.com/runlog/inaug-graphic.html
Obama screws the gays once again.
JoeCHI | 01.19.2009 – 12:34 pm | #
I wish you’d reword that…
JoeCHI | 01.19.2009 – 12:34 pm | #
Sorry Joe, Bishop Robinson is on MSNBC right now via phone, and he is not feeling that way. And only has praise for Obama.