anniversary of March on Washington

Looking back on perhaps the most important nonviolent mass action in
American history, the March on Washington led by Martin Luther King Jr,
it's interesting to hear some viewpoints on how things were then and how
they are today:

     Pastor emeritus of Holman United Methodist Church, James Lawson was a
     longtime associate of Martin Luther King Jr. Though involved in the
     planning of the 1963 march, he did not attend it, having given his
     bus seat to a student. He said today: "The entire march was under
     pressure from the Kennedy administration. John Lewis changed his
     speech after pressure from the executive committee composed of the
     big civil rights groups. The Kennedys didn't like mass actions. When
     they realized they couldn't prevent the march, they tried to mold it,
     to make it more palatable to white people. I don't think they
     realized that the nation was ready to take on segregation; the
     churches were ready, except for Southern Baptists like Jerry
     Falwell. The march was actually about jobs and freedom as well as
     civil rights; something that is overlooked. We still have not dealt
     with issues at a systemic level...."

     James H. Cone, author of "Martin & Malcolm & America: A Dream or a
     Nightmare," Cone is distinguished professor of theology at the Union
     Theological Seminary. He said today: "King's great speech has been
     distorted. America made his dream speech an optimistic symbol about
     itself. Americans can do that because they forget about the role of
     Malcolm X, who said 'While King was having a dream, the rest of us
     Negroes are having a nightmare.' In time, King would echo those
     words, saying 'They have turned my dream into a nightmare.' Now, many
     rightwingers love to quote King's speech -- pretending we have
     achieved equality while half of the 2 million people in jail today
     are black; while one third of blacks live in conditions comparable to
     Third World countries. The tragedy of the speech is not what King
     said, it's how America takes this speech and makes it appear that it
     is moving toward justice for African Americans."

Kendall Clark
-- 
Jazz is only what you are. -- Louis Armstrong
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