Last year I broke from my tradition of covering “I have a Dream” on this day and covered “Beyond Vietnam”, the other Dr. King speech I personally attended, instead. This year, I return to tradition. Although Glen Beck’s exploitation of this event dominates the news cycle, I will not cover that in this article, because of who Dr. King was, and who Beck will never be.
When I was a ten year old boy, I was diving for mussels in the bay. I came up under a boat, hit my head, and knocked myself silly. When I came to, a black boy about my age was holding onto me with one arm and the boat with the other. We talked for a couple hours, and I came to realize that all the hateful things my father had taught me about negroes (that was the polite term in 1958; African-American had not yet been invented.) didn’t fit this boy at all. In youthful innocence, I took him home to meet my family. When we walked into the living room, my father turned beet red and screamed “Get that little n*gg*r out of my house!” After I exposed him to that, the boy was no longer interested in being my friend, but I became the only ten year old civil rights activist in the neighborhood.
Five years later, at fifteen, I had already been to the south to protest for civil rights, and on August 28, 1963, I was in the crowd on the mall. I did not meet Dr. King until an organizational meeting for Vietnam Summer, shortly before his “Beyond Vietnam” speech kicked it off, but his message that day was so clear, I felt I did.
Without further ado, here is “I Have a Dream” in its entirety.
The message and the dream still live.
If you prefer text, click here.
22 Responses to “He May Be Gone, but His Dream Still Lives”
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I do believe the equality Dr. King was working for was to bring the Black community to parity with the White community through equal educational opportunities and job equality. It seems as if because of the as you say “no millionaire left behind” his dream of equality came true, came to pass, only it was the other way round. Blacks were not raised to a middle class but rather whites have been placed in a lower class with their earned and accumulated wealth being slowly taken from them.
Mark, I agree. Dr. King would not approve of the new move towatd equality.
Dr. King was all about inclusiveness and tolerance. Those in opposition to him were all about keeping the rubes stirred up with their dirty black bogeyman.
It looks to me like the idiot-masters won this one.
They’re winning, JR. But we’re not done yet.
That Glenn Beck has chosen today, the very anniversary of King’s fabulous speech, to hold his own far-right, opposite-of-King’s-ideals hatemongerer gathering at the very spot King made his speech is a national disgrace!
That’s why I ignored it… for now.
That’s a really good bad /sad story.
You betcha it’s a national disgrace and there’s probably going to be plenty of crying going on.
Hack hack!
I hear you, Fly. I felt as humiliated as he did.
What a story, TC! Did your dad have a thing to say when he found out the child had probably saved your life? The racism in my house was more subtle. During the Civil Rights movement my mother was genuinely bewildered by the uproar. “We (meaning when she was growing up in her family) never mistreated our nigras.” ~facepalm~ I mean, where do you even START …
And now, Glenn Beck says he is “reclaiming” Civil Rights!! Sickening.
Candace, when I finally talked to him about it, his attitude was that it’s their role to serve their betters.
I am disgusted Beck is getting a way with his lies of divine intervention or whatever he said. That slime! Tom I have to laugh, I always told my sons sometimes a little knock on the head is good for you. “especially when the right person is there. That was a good experience I have to say I’m glad you got it for many reasons.
Jim, I turned on C-Span just ling enough to see that the crowd was a small one. I don’t even know what he said yet.
It’s funny… without that experience, I might have grown up to be a racist.
Looking forward to two things:
[1] Someone doing a “fair and balanced” parsing of today’s non-political rally to see if there were any violations that might compromise 501(c)3 status
[2] PolitiFact doing their always excellent job of fact-checking Beck’s event, as they promise to complete in a couple of days.
Source:
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2010/aug/27/glenn-beck-faces-truth-o-meter/
Also, ThinkProgress has a very well reasoned comparison between Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” and Beck’s “I Have a SCHEME!”
Source:
http://thinkprogress.org/2010/08/27/beck-martin-luther-king/
Nameless, (1) Seems interesting indeed. Thanks for the great links. I look forward to reading them.
Here’s an interesting comparison between the lives of Beck and King. King’s accomplishments are illustrated on one side and Beck’s non-accomplishments on the other side.
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/glenn-beck-does-remind-us-civil-righ
I cannot even read a speech by MLK, much less watch a video, without bursting into tears. The WaPo said crowds of thousands upon thousands. CNN described them as stretching from the Lincoln Memorial to the WWII memorial. And of course the MSM gleefully points out how small Sharpton’s was in comparison. The next time I hear one of these right-wing assholes complain that building the mosque so near ground zero is insensitive, I’m going to ask how they describe this Beck travesty. And I bet every one in that damn crowd has done their fair share of bitching about the economy – yet they have the funds to travel and show up for a day of lies. And the reality? MLK would defend their right to be there, which they do have, of course.
I just keep asking myself what the hell is going on in this country. So, so depressed.
Thanks for the link, Leslie.. If course he would. He would heve the level of anger over this that I do. That was not his way. But he would NOT approve.
Miserepubilkanly, beyond the ‘Nam lay Cambodia, Grenada, El Salvador, Panama, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iraq II, Haiti, Pakistan, Yemen … Iran? I have A SCREAM!
Bruce, had McConJob and Mooseolini won, we would now be at war with Iran, North Korea, and probably Russia over the dispute in Georgia. I have a scream too, but Beck didn’t. See today’s top article.
Bruce,
Yes. Take America back!
And lets get Canada too! 😉
Well, your father definitely steered you unknowingly in the right direction. Those were very sad days.
That he did, Monique. That he did.