TBA: Lessons from Dr. King
| By Kay Steiger - Mar 18th, 2008 at 9:35 am EDT |
| Also listed in: Campus Progress Blog |
The morning opened today with a panel on learning lessons from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement. The panel included former presidential candidate and Rev. Jesse Jackson, Pulitzer Prize winner Roger Wilkins, and King biographer Taylor Branch.
Jackson made the case for the moral imperative. He talked of how we often get caught up in the politically possible and popularity, but we should allow the moral imperative to transcend either of these two. So many civil rights came from Selma, Alabama -- affirmative action, the ability to vote on campus, and the voting age getting dropped to 18.
Wilkins said that the civil rights movement has "defined my whole career." He said that back in the early 1960s, when he worked in the Kennedy administration, "there were not a whole lot of black people in the federal government." And, he went on to say, he was the only person in the federal government that was related to a civil rights leader. Kennedy, Wilkins said, didn't initially understand the civil rights movement. "They thought," he said, "it was a political problem to be handled." When describing the March on Washington, he said official Washington was "scared to death of all those Negros coming on buses." Wilkins' personal history that is so intertwined with the civil rights era was compelling.
Branch noted that the "watch word" in politics used to be "movement," but today, the word is "spin." He criticized the era of punditry, where those that "throw spitballs" are held in higher honor than those that leading movements. He talked about how people still aren't willing to realize that "a movement lead by African Americans redeemed America." People are seeking to diminish the accomplishment, and said this movement should be in the same category as the founding fathers. Hell, I'd argue some of these people should be held above the founding fathers.
As I learned earlier this month when I went to the Black Power, Black Feminism conference at Sarah Lawrence College, the civil rights movement wasn't perfect either. Many civil rights leaders repressed the roles of women in the movement. But the truth is that the passion with which civil rights leaders pursued their goal was legendary. It becomes hard to live up to. But perhaps when we figure out something is a moral imperative we'll stop taking no for an answer.
Jackson made the case for the moral imperative. He talked of how we often get caught up in the politically possible and popularity, but we should allow the moral imperative to transcend either of these two. So many civil rights came from Selma, Alabama -- affirmative action, the ability to vote on campus, and the voting age getting dropped to 18.
Wilkins said that the civil rights movement has "defined my whole career." He said that back in the early 1960s, when he worked in the Kennedy administration, "there were not a whole lot of black people in the federal government." And, he went on to say, he was the only person in the federal government that was related to a civil rights leader. Kennedy, Wilkins said, didn't initially understand the civil rights movement. "They thought," he said, "it was a political problem to be handled." When describing the March on Washington, he said official Washington was "scared to death of all those Negros coming on buses." Wilkins' personal history that is so intertwined with the civil rights era was compelling.
Branch noted that the "watch word" in politics used to be "movement," but today, the word is "spin." He criticized the era of punditry, where those that "throw spitballs" are held in higher honor than those that leading movements. He talked about how people still aren't willing to realize that "a movement lead by African Americans redeemed America." People are seeking to diminish the accomplishment, and said this movement should be in the same category as the founding fathers. Hell, I'd argue some of these people should be held above the founding fathers.
As I learned earlier this month when I went to the Black Power, Black Feminism conference at Sarah Lawrence College, the civil rights movement wasn't perfect either. Many civil rights leaders repressed the roles of women in the movement. But the truth is that the passion with which civil rights leaders pursued their goal was legendary. It becomes hard to live up to. But perhaps when we figure out something is a moral imperative we'll stop taking no for an answer.
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