For the BOG: FULL: President Obama Speech at 50th Anniversary of March on Washington

[freshwest]

FULL: President Obama Speech at 50th Anniversary of March on Washington, Pays Tribute to MLK

Published on Aug 28, 2013

President Obama's Address on 50th Anniversary of MLK 'I Have a Dream' Speech

VIDEO DESCRIPTION

Barack Obama marks anniversary of Martin Luther King's 'I have a Dream' speech

Fifty years after Martin Luther King delivered his "I have a Dream" speech, Barack Obama assesses America's progress (USAToday)

WASHINGTON — In his address to thousands who gathered on the Washington Mall on Wednesday to mark the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, President Obama paid tribute to civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and to the anonymous millions who stood by King's side during the civil rights fight of the 1960s.

Obama remembered those who could not marry the ones they loved because of so-called anti-miscegenation laws, African-American soldiers who fought for freedom abroad that they could not enjoy on U.S. soil and white Americans who could not stand by discrimination and sacrificed sometimes with their own blood .

"Because they marched, America became more fair," Obama said. "America changed for you and me and the entire world grew strength from that example."

Before Obama took the stage on Wednesday, former presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton offered stirring tributes to King.

Carter lamented what King might have thought about recent the Supreme Court ruling that gutted voting right laws that he fought for or the high unemployment rate and incarceration rates plaguing the African-American community.

"There is a tremendous agenda ahead of us," Carter said.

Clinton also spoke about the racial divide that he said still exists in the USA and the myriad problems facing the nation. But he also suggested that King would be disappointed by the partisan division that roils Washington. But Clinton posited that King "did not die to hear his heirs whine about political gridlock."

"It's time to stop complaining and put our shoulders against the stubborn gates holding Americans back," Clinton said.

Obama wondered if over the years the progress that came in closing racial disparities as a result of the fight by King and his contemporaries obscured that the March on Washington was not just about a pursuit of racial justice but also about solving economic inequity.

"They were there seeking jobs as well as justice, not just the absence of oppression but the presence of economic opportunity. For those it profit a man, Dr. King would ask, to sit at an integrated lunch counter if he can't afford the meal."

When it comes to economic opportunity--the idea that anyone can approve their lot through honest work--Obama said the country has fallen short of King's vision not just for the black community but all working Americans

While there have been examples of success in the African-American community that would have been unimaginable a half-century ago, black unemployment remains nearly twice as high as unemployment for whites and Latinos are close behind. Meanwhile, middle class Americans wages have stagnated while corporate profits have soared, Obama lamented.

"The position of all working Americans, regardless of color, has eroded, making the dream Dr. King described more elusive," Obama said.

Obama was just a toddler when king delivered his seminal "I Have a Dream" address 50 years ago, but the words of the civil rights leader have served as a rhetorical and moral guidepost throughout his presidency.

As he emerged as a long-shot presidential candidate in 2008, Obama often quoted King on the campaign trail that the "arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice." And in his 2008 election night victory speech, Obama echoed King's "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech, when he intoned "the road ahead will be long, our climb will be steep."

And in the lead up to the 50th anniversary commemoration of the March on Washington on Wednesday, Obama, the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas, has embraced his role as the personification of King's dream while repeatedly questioning whether the nation has lived up to that dream.

His address was the culminating moment for Obama in a summer in which he has repeatedly reflected on King's legacy and taken stock of the country's progress and failures to create a more economically and racially just society.

"Martin Luther King - I Have A Dream Speech - August 28, 1963"

He goes into what MLK was really working on that is so often ignored. There are many important issues here and truths that need to be heard.

I posted the White House video of the entire event, but this is the call to action that many wanted to hear the most.

Enjoy, BOG members!

ATTENTION:

THIS IS A POST IN THE BOG, A SAFE HAVEN FOR SUPPORTERS OF THE PRESIDENT, HIS PARTY, POLICIES AND ADMINISTRATION.

PLEASE POST IN THE SPIRIT OF THE SOP OF THIS SAFE HAVEN AND DO NOT DENIGRATE THE ABOVE NOR THE SUPPORTERS HERE.

THANK YOU.

[freshwest]

1. Bill Clinton FULL MLK 50 Year March On Washington Anniversary Speech

Published on Aug 28, 2013

VIDEO DESCRIPTION:

Bill Clinton mlk 50 year anniversary full speech at the lincoln memorial's steps. bill clinton talks stubborn gates. Other luminaries include Lynda Bird Johnson Robb, daughter of President Lyndon Johnson, who signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

A march, led by a replica of a transit bus that civil rights leader Rosa Parks rode when she refused to give up her seat to a white man in 1955, and an interfaith service also were planned for Wednesday morning. A march held Saturday drew tens of thousands to the Lincoln Memorial.

Obama considers the 1963 march a "seminal event" and part of his generation's "formative memory." A half-century after the march, he said, is a good time to reflect on how far the country has come and how far it still has to go.

In an interview Tuesday on Tom Joyner's radio show, Obama said he imagines that King "would be amazed in many ways about the progress that we've made." He listed advances such as equal rights before the law, an accessible judicial system, thousands of African-American elected officials, African-American CEOs and the doors that the civil rights movement opened for Latinos, women and gays.

For those who missed it!

[freshwest]

2. REV AL SHARPTON: March on Washington 50th Anniversary Speakers

Published on Aug 24, 2013

VIDEO DESCRIPTION:

"Dreams are for those who won't accept reality. So they dream about what is not there, but will make it happen," Sharpton said.

"We must give us our young people dreams again. You build jails, closed schools and break their dream and you wonder why they are wearing saggy pants."

The Reverend delivered one of the best speeches that day, maybe we should make a poll...

[Cha]

3. Thank you, freshwest, for posting these 50th Anniversary Vids of PBO,

Clinton, and Rev Al in their own posts in the BOG. Excellent history we can be so proud of.

Happy Labor Day!

[DevonRex]

4. He is so important as a president because of his calls to action.

It is the theme of his presidency and it will be the way he will be remembered. He is bold enough and confident enough to invite the people of this nation to change the course of their own government.

Some groups have really answered the call. LGBTs have been fighting tooth and nail for their civil rights and have made substantial gains. And they won't stop now. We will fight with them, too, because it is right and just, and because we won't tolerate human beings getting labeled "less than."

After all this time, the very things Martin fought and died for and John Lewis was jailed for are being taken away. African Americans and Latinos and the elderly and college students are fighting now to regain that ground. We will fight with them because the right to vote is essential. Without it there is no democracy.

And women are standing up and marching on state capitols by the thousands in places where their most fundamental rights are being appropriated by bigoted old men and ignorant religious zealots - as if they had the sense God gave a jaybird. They don't even know how the female body works, much less what is best for an individual woman. They also seem to have forgotten their very own ideology of less government intervention. So women gather to make their voices heard and their opinions known. This is a fight that crosses all barriers. Even those religious ones. Because even deeply religious women use birth control and are the victims of rape and have to make choices about continuing pregnancies.

Yes, the Tea Party is protesting, too. Not because they heard his call but because he's black. We've got to change that.

[sheshe2]

5. Beautifully stated, Devon.

People are standing up for the right to be heard. They do not stand apart. They stand together, we can be One Voice.

"There's something happening here". As the song goes ..."What it is ain't exactly clear". I don't that's exactly true anymore. I believe that it is becoming clearer everyday.

[freshwest]

8. Hope this is not offtopic but the song lyrics (Trigger Warning: Vietnam War scenes, but not graphic)

Until recently the red octagon STOP signs in my area had stickers below the white letters:

'CHILDREN, WHAT'S THAT SOUND.'

We can't forget Vietnam, no more than we can Iraq now. It seems to be all of one piece, the War on Workers, Women, the people in all these civil wars going on.

We are so tired of this but it's a matter of survival. We either embrace our history or it rolls over us.

[sheshe2]

6. Thank you freshwest~

I still have not had the time to watch them all. I will be sure to listen tonight.

It's about our future. What we can achieve, what we will achieve together.

BOG

[sheshe2]

7. Let's keep marching~

Let’s keep marching until every American has the opportunity to realize their dreams.

freshwest