For those who know so little about the civil rights movement, but insist on lecturing us about it

[EffieBlack]

Here's a quick primer:

Unfortunately, too many people have a sadly revisionist view of civil rights history, a view that, while seeming to glorify Martin Luther King, really end up turning him into a saintly, bigger than life characature of his true self and diminishing the work of many others, white and black.

Here are a few facts to counter the myths.

1. Dr. King was not the leader of the Civil Rights Movement. He was one of many leaders of the movement.

2. The civil rights movement did not begin with the Montgomery Bus Boycott in 1955 and end with Dr. King's assassination in 1968. The movement began long before Dr. King was even born and continues to this day.

3. The civil rights movement does not consist only of protests, marches and agitation. A number of parallel and complimentary activities worked in concert to bring about the change that many people attribute solely to Dr. King.

For example, Dr. King, Rosa Parks and the black citizens of Montgomery, Alabama are rightly lauded for their tenacity, bravery and commitment during the year-long Montgomery Bus Boycott. But while the on-the-ground protest brought the nation's attention to the situation and brought the city's economy to its knees, the primary reason the boycott was ultimately successful was something that had occurred more than a year before the boycott began: The 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which invalidated state-imposed racial segregation and was the legal basis for the Montgomery protesters to fight the city's segregated transportation system. Without Brown, the boycotters may not have been successful. And Brown was the result, not only of a courageous and principled Supreme Court, but of DECADES of brilliant legal strategy developed by one of America's greatest heroes and perhaps the best legal mind this country has ever produced: Charles Hamilton Houston, who with his protege, Thurgood Marshall, used the Constitution and flawed legal system to save America from itself.

This pattern continued throughout the 50s and 60s, with the protesters drawing the public's hearts and minds while the NAACP lawyers used the legal system to untangled our jumbled rights. Neither entity could have been successful without the other. The protesters heavily influenced the judges who were hearing the cases and the lawyers and judges in these cases consistently protected and vindicated and advanced the rights of the protesters. It was a beautiful, brilliant symmetry of which far too many Americans are completely unaware.

There is so much more, but I hope that this initial primer will encourage people to go back and study the history - or talk to people who were actually there - before continuing trying to promulgate ill-informed, inaccurate assumptions about the civil rights movement.

[LostinVA]

1. Loving vs. State of Virginia

Two brave people and Thurgood Marshall... and a decent USSC.

Nice post.

[redqueen]

2. Excellent post... thank you

especially for mentioning the tremendous amount of work done by Houston and Marshall.

:yourock:

[EffieBlack]

16. You're welcome. Houston and Marshall saved this country from a second Civl War

How sad that so few people today know this - they have no idea who Charles Houston was and think that Thurgood Marshall was just the first black Supreme Court Justice.

These men are two of America's greatest heroes.

Thurgood Marshall, as NAACP General Counsel, was rightly seen as something close to a savior in black communities across the country. His brilliance, strength, fearlessness and utter and complete commitment to using the law to right wrongs was known and respected far and wide.

During some of the darkest days of the struggle, when blacks in cities and towns across the nation were fighting so hard for their rights and hitting obstacles at every turn, and the legal system threatened to grind them into the ground, word would go out to the NAACP's legal department for help. And, throughout the country, two words were enough to provide comfort and strength and hope that they might just prevail:

"Thurgood's coming."

[rosesaylavee]

37. You are right...

at least as far as I am concerned. I knew about Thurgood Marshall but didn't know about Charles Houston.

Thank you for the post!

[EffieBlack]

52. Charles Houston is one of the country's greatest heroes, but sadly, one of its least known

Charles Hamilton Houston conceived of and led the legal strategy leading to the end of legalized racial segregation in the United States. He and those he taught and mentored laid the legal groundwork through thought and action that ultimately led to 1954 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education that made racial segregation in public primary and secondary schools unconstitutional. He died four years before full fruition of his work to end "separate but equal" as a valid constitutional principle. Houston not only participated in effecting the change, but was the inspiration and mentor to Thurgood Marshall, James Nabrit, Spottswood Robinson, A. Leon Higginbotham, Robert Carter, William Hastie and many others who carried on the battle and remains an inspiration to those working for social justice today.
. . .

Houston is recognized as the architect behind the ultimate success of the long struggle to end legalized discrimination and, in particular, the "separate but equal" doctrine accepted by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1896 in Plessy v. Ferguson. Houston, together with a select group of mostly Howard lawyers, including Thurgood Marshall, and working through the NAACP and later the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, created a number of precedents that ultimately led to the dismantling of de jure discrimination after Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, four years after his death. Among the major steps were Pearson v. Murray (1936) and State ex rel. Gaines v. Canada (1939). In Pearson Houston and Thurgood Marshall established in the Maryland highest court that the University of Maryland could not exclude African Americans as it had excluded Marshall just a few years earlier. In Gaines this principle was extended to the entire country when the U.S. Supreme Court held that Missouri could not exclude blacks from the state law school since there was no comparable, and could be no comparable school for African Americans because of the unique intangibles of a legal education, in Missouri. Ultimately this precedent was extended to other schools and ultimately down to public primary and secondary education.
. . .
Charles Hamilton Houston's credo guides the Howard University School of Law's mission to this day:

"A lawyer's either a social engineer or he's a parasite on society."

http://www.brownat50.org/BrownBios/BioCharlesHHouston.html

I strongly urge you and anyone else interested in this issue to learn more about Charles Hamilton Houston.

[rosesaylavee]

54. What an amazing thing he did

And I like that quote a whole lot. Again, thank you for posting. This thread reminds me why I came to DU. I appreciate this thread and the information provided.

[bluestateguy]

3. Thank you

Your average person has probably never heard of Roy Wilkins, Ralph Abernathy, Whitney Young, Floyd McKissick and James Farmer.

And on Brown v. Board: It didn't end segregation in the schools with the stroke of a pen. Some school districts remained segregated by force of law as late as 1969.

[EffieBlack]

5. You're right about Brown

It didn't end segregation - it invalidated it. But it brought the force of law down on the side of the protesters, which made all the difference in the world.

[mopinko]

45. some are seggregated still.

and cases are still going to the supreme court. sadly.

[elleng]

10. Decision said

'with all deliberate speed,' and there's been litigation ever since.

[Captain Hilts]

4. A. Phillip Randolph. Marian Anderson. Harold Ickes. Walter White.

concert.

Mary McLeod Bethune's advocacy.
Dorothy Height's.
Eleanor Roosevelt's.
Jackie Robinson's in the Army THEN in baseball.
Thurghood Marshall.
Ralph Bunch.

[EffieBlack]

7. You got it

Bayard Rustin
Whitney Young
Roy Wilkins
Joe Rauh
Arnold Aronson
Clarence Mitchell
John Siegenthaler

so, so many . . .

[intheflow]

14. W.E.B. Du Bois. Ida B. Wells-Barnett. Charles Darrow. Jane Addams.

Fannie Lou Hamer.
John Lewis.
Diane Nash.
Bob Moses.
The Little Rock Nine.
Jim Zwerg.
Ella Baker.
Morris Dees.
James Reeb.

The movement really goes waaaaay back in U.S. history, before the NAACP formed in 1909. Specifically, I'm thinking about David Walker and Frederick Douglass, whose eloquent arguments on the right of all peoples to be free and equal persuaded many northern whites to be sympathetic to the movement.

[moriah]

31. Don't forget Daisy Bates when you mention the Little Rock Nine

Her and her husband, L. C. Bates, advised the Little Rock Nine and published the Arkansas State Press, a newspaper that publicized violations of desegregation orders.

As an Arkie who attended Central High, I want her to be remembered.

[intheflow]

32. You'll be happy to know I learned about Daisy Bates in my civil rights class.

Of course I had to get to the grad school level before I learned anything more than the standard "some Southern whites were sympathetic to the cause" with out naming names. :( But you're right: shame on me for forgetting her and her husband.

[moriah]

35. Thanks... guess being from LR makes a difference....

In 6th Grade we had projects to do on the Civil Rights movement, and I chose to do my project on her. I feel very honored that despite how sick she was at the time (she died shortly after) that she consented to allow a sixth grader to interview her. She talked about the bomb that was set off in front of her house as well as the other intimidation tactics used against her, but she told me she wouldn't have done anything different even if she had known in advance that the bomb was going to be placed there, even if she knew it would have killed her.

She was the president of the Arkansas chapter of the NAACP, as well.

She was truly a remarkable woman and I feel very grateful to have met her.

[rosesaylavee]

39. Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman too! n/t

[Captain Hilts]

18. Can't believe I left out Wilkens and Rauh. And I've gone blank on the name...

of the 2nd black player in baseball...in the Am league...

Larry Dobey?

[EffieBlack]

21. Not surprised you left them out - there are so many people!

[Rock_Garden]

6. I'd recommend this twice if I could. Thanks, Effie.

[calico1]

8. Excellent!

:thumbsup:

[BootinUp]

9. nice post. K&R

[SIMPLYB1980]

11. K&R.

Great read.

[ellacott]

12. Great post

And people keep forgetting about Adam Clayton Powell and his work in the legislature. LBJ wasn't the lone ranger in Washington.

[Lucinda]

13. Thank you very much! I had to stop myself, twice last night, from

posting something to the effect of

"PLEASE tell me you weren't educated in the American school system!!!!"

I really am amazed at some of the stuff that has been posted here lately. Thanks for laying it out there. It's much needed an appreciated.

[JackBeck]

15. Great post!

Reminds me of how many people think Stonewall was the start of the LGBT Rights movement, when it really began decades before.

[elaineb]

17. Amen! Thanks for this great post.

The civil rights movement was and is an effort on the part of tens of thousands of everyday people, who CARE about this country's future and about making it a just place for ALL. Thank God for all the courageous and never-tiring heroes and heroines who gave their bodies, hearts, and souls to the movement, and for those who are doing so to this day.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

19. I'm a little more concerned...

with the people who prop up LBJ.

[EffieBlack]

23. Then you'd better take it up with the civil rights leaders and activists who worked with him

and consistently praise him for his support for civil rights. They seem to think that he was a great friend and an important ally in the work they did. So if you have

You know, I think that the way to look at this legacy issue is to look at Lyndon Johnson and Johnson had a massive, tragic failure in Vietnam. It was a tragedy for the nation, and it was a personal character failure for the President. So that would have been a classically failed presidency but for the fact that he really did things in civil rights. He took risks. He fought for civil rights, and he fought for civil rights consistently, until near the end, when he became tired and angry.

So when you look back at Johnson you say, well, he failed at Vietnam, but there's civil rights. And you never can forget the civil rights . . . Johnson did things. The country changed as a result of his leadership and his leadership meant he took chances.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/race_relations/jan-june97/race_6-20.html

Roger Wilkins, historian, former Justice Department official in the Johnson Administration, Roy Wilkins' nephew

[suston96]

20. Yeah, there were others.......How about Harry Truman, for one....

http://www.redstone.army.mil/history/integrate/welcome.html

Google will give you much more.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

22. Speaking of the sweep of history: The Decline of Public Racism; 1938-1947

I happened to post this article elsewhere, but thought it would be of historical interest to readers of this thread.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x4097733

[EffieBlack]

24. Thanks - this looks very interesting! n/t

[Cameron27]

25. Thank you

K&R

[Iceburg]

26. Thank you! K&R nt

[pleah]

27. Thank you EffieBlack, people really do need to read a history book once in a while!

[hayu_lol]

28. Got a nice list of committed people on this thread...

but there is still at least one name missing:

Frederick Douglass.

If the name means nothing, try google.

[EffieBlack]

29. :-)

Funny thing - I think many of these names are familiar to most of the people here, but many of them seem to have an incredible shallow understanding about the people behind them. All too often, we keep seeing these icons reduced to one-dimensional stereotypes ("Martin Luther King, the leader of the civil rights movement, had a dream that everyone would be judged by the content of their character not the color of their skin so any black person who ever mentions race is being disloyal to Dr. King and his dream") or they are attacked in the most mean-spirited ways and accused of being sell-outs, jokers, or worse if they have the temerity to say something with which any of the so-called civil rights experts who don't have a clue about civil rights happens to disagree.

It's going to take more than a few posts on DU to educate some folks. It's quite sad.

[unc70]

34. I had noticed your posts in various threads. Thank you

Beginning in a few days, once this firestorm passes, I think we should see if it is possible to discuss various aspects of the civil rights movement (maybe expanding to other issues like equal pay, the workplace, etc.). I expect DU has members who could write books on this subject, probably already have. Many more of us have vivid memories of events large and small that we have shared with few, if any, others.

I have tried a few times to discuss the civil rights movement and various related topics, but I am often attacked and dismissed because I am a Southern white man and what could I know. Just a little, witnessing sit-ins, student leader when high school was integrated, seeing some of the best and worst behavior of people, and having revisited this recently at our class reunion, where we could finally talk about it. I even voted for Jesse. I have wondered how many of Obama's supporters even know that he is not the first or how many know the name Shirley Chisholm.

[EffieBlack]

47. Thanks

That's a very interesting idea. We need to have more dialogue and less shouting our own view at the top of our lungs - that's the only way we can all learn and grow.

[intheflow]

33. I remembered Mr. Douglass!

Post #14, upthread. :hi:

[puebloknot]

30. Thanks for this! Very informative. nt

[Horse with no Name]

36. Chief Justice Earl Warren

The justices of the United States Supreme Court communicate with one another about individual cases throughout the judicial process, from the initial decision about accepting jurisdiction to the final judgment on the merits. This collection of notes to Earl Warren (1891-1974) from three of his colleagues, however, was most unusual. In paying tribute to Chief Justice Warren, justices Harold H. Burton (1888-1964), Felix Frankfurter (1882-1965), and William O. Douglas (1898-1980) underscored their sense of gratitude, delight, and relief that the chief had led the brethren to a unanimous decision in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954). It was widely believed by informed observers that the Brown case, which held that racial segregation in the public schools was unconstitutional, would be decided by a badly divided Court. The justices had been split on many other controversial issues, and even an optimistic Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993), who argued the case for the opponents of segregation, thought that several justices would dissent. Chief Justice Warren carefully structured a six-month debate about the case within the Court, adopting the important recommendation of Justice Robert H. Jackson (1892-1954) to delay taking a formal vote until the issues were thoroughly explored. During the course of many meetings, Justice Frankfurter was particularly resourceful about identifying a number of areas upon which all could agree. The Court would continue to issue unanimous decisions in cases involving racial segregation for many years, which lent an enhanced legitimacy to a major development in constitutional law.

http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?mcc:1:./temp/~ammem_kweA::

[LostinVA]

42. Good one

[EffieBlack]

48. Excellent - thanks.

[MethuenProgressive]

38. Carol Denise McNair, Cynthia Wesley, Addie Mae Collins, & Carole Robertson

Not all the martyred were famous men.

[EffieBlack]

49. Viola Liuzzu

And they weren't all black.

[alcibiades_mystery]

40. You are exactly right....and a few other things

I think one of the most overlooked factors in the Civil Rights movement 1945-1975 is global decolonization, including militant revolutions. It's no mistake that Malcolm X was bringing up the Bandung Conference in his famous Message to the Grassroots speech. Most Americans forget or ignore this, considering the Civil Rights movement of that era to be an exclusively American affair that reflects exclusively American values and dynamics. If we think globally, however, as Malcolm urged people to do, what we see is a global revolution against Eurocentrism and European colonialism, from Vietnam to Congo to Algeria, etc. To the extent that black communities were colonized pockets within the United States, their capacity to connect with this global movement became an urgent problem.

We like to think of the good intentions of Americans with respect to Civil Rights, and we romanticize "non-violent resistance," lending it undue weight. But a no small measure of the GOOD decisions were also pushed by fear, as Chuck D might say, of a black planet.

To this extent, the notion that we are dealing merely with non-violent protest, on the one hand, and legal strategy, on the other, is also limited, though it is certainly true. Both of these factors only make sense in the context of global decolonization movements that threatened white supremacy - often with militant action - on a GLOBAL scale. What we have experienced since 1975 or so, then, is a new form of supremacy that emerged in response to that global movement (debt structures, economic recolonization) - both globally and within the United States. A kinder, gentler, and more vicious colonialism.

[H2O Man]

43. Malcolm was

the first of his generation to fully appreciate the potential of the Garvey "Back to Africa" concept. And, of course, that was in part because of his father. Malcolm was able to blend and advance the best of Garvey and Elijah, and advocated placing the civil rights campaign in the context of an internatyional human rights campaign. His trips to Africa towards the end of his life were made in large part to advance this cause.

Another overlooked part of the mid-1960s was the indirect communication between Malcolm and Martin, which took place through a Chicago attorney's office. Martin understood that Malcolm was right, and his speaking out against the US war in Vietnam was a result. King's 1967 "A Time to Break Silence" (aka "Beyond Vietnam") was one of the finest examples of moving civil rights into the scope of human rights.

[Marrah_G]

41. What a great post, thank you for that

[H2O Man]

44. Very good.

King was the best-known of the civil rights leaders of his generation, and deserves recognition as one of the most important Americans in our nation's history. However, to fully appreciate Martin and the civil rights movement, one should have background on the larger movement.

One good reference for young folks who are interested is the series by Taylor Branch. The three books are:

{1} Parting the Waters: America in the King Years , 1954-63.

{2} Pillar of Fire: America in the KIng Years,1963-65

{3} At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68.

These books are not the complete history, of course. But they are of value.

[EffieBlack]

50. Wonderful suggestions!

[jasmine621]

46. Actually, this post should have over a 100 kicks. But this demonstrates

exactly the state of this nation and who really posts here. "If you can't post anything negative or divisive, don't post anything at all" seems like the DU standard lately.

[Hatchling]

51. K&R

[Raster]

53. Bless. Your. Heart. The struggle for civil rights for ALL Americans continues today.

The good Doctor had a dream about the promissed land. Unfortunately, WE are not there yet. Civil Rights and Equality is NOT an a la carte menu. None of us is free unless ALL of us are free. Black, White, Yellow, Red, Brown, Male, Female, Gay, Straight, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgendered. No matter the labels that divide us...



I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check — a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quick sands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

As we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied, as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "For Whites Only". We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair.

I say to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring."

And if America is to be a great nation this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania!

Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado!

Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California!

But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia!

Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee!

Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Wake up America!:kick:Live the Dream!

[EffieBlack]

55. Kick

[cloudythescribbler]

56. It would be better, I think, if egs of "lecturing" that was false or misleading were starting point