Wednesday, August 21, 2013

TIME Magazine: 50th Anniversary of March on Washington

TIME Magazine: 50th Anniversary of March on Washington

One Man. One March. One Speech.

One Dream



Fifty years ago, 250,000 people gathered on the National Mall for the March on Washington, where Martin Luther King Jr. shared his dream for America. TIME talks to the people who helped make the march a success—from civil rights leaders to Hollywood stars—and offers exclusive, unseen images from that transformative era.

Harry Belafonte Singer, activist (Marco Grob for TIME)
“At the end of the Second World War, those of us who had participated in that conflict were under the impression that if we were triumphant over fascism and the Nazis, that the men and women who returned from that conflict would be celebrated and honored by our nation. Many of us went off to that war and didn’t have the right to vote. Many of us went off to that war and didn’t have the right to participate in the American Dream. We didn’t really think about this thing as a dream until Dr. King articulated it.

As a kid, there was not much I could aspire to, because the achievement of black people in spaces of power and rule and governance was not that evident, and therefore we were diminished in the way we thought we could access power and be part of the American fabric. So we who came back from this war having expectations and finding that there were none to be harvested were put upon to make a decision. We could accept the status quo as it was beginning to reveal itself with these oppressive laws still in place. Or, as had begun to appear on the horizon, stimulated by something Mahatma Gandhi of India had done, we could start this quest for social change by confronting the state a little differently. Let’s do it nonviolently, let’s use passive thinking applied to aggressive ideas, and perhaps we could overthrow the oppression by making it morally unacceptable.”


3 comments:

Lsowell said...

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was inspired by the great Mahatma Gandhi, and both men were able to keep the protests non-violent for the most part. The protests shared similar goal which was for the oppressed to become independent and free, and the motif was nothing more, and nothing significantly destructive to whom perceived as oppressors(English colonist for Indians, and the American white majority for black Americans). The protest in Cambodia, if it were to happen now, is tainted with a sense similar to and conveyed/replicated from what happened in Egypt, Lybia, and Syria, where protesters seeked more that just freedom and independence, but revenge and destruction of the governments along with the lives of the leaders and the leaders' families and relatives. That is the difference, probably insidious to some, and a red flag for all especially those favoring/pushing for the protest need to caution.

Anonymous said...

Simply not working in Cambodia!

Anonymous said...

WORK SMARTER NOT HARDER!!!

Prime Minister of Nambodia at 27.

1985-current: Expertize in controller, import-export, manipulate, natural resources, lands concession, Head of Military forces, CEO of CPP and Dictator.

Education: PhD of Hanoi University in Environmental Control

Available Upon Request: Ho Chi Minh

Graduated with Honor at 27 from MIT.

2000-current: Expertize in humanity behavior. Make a living selling items on eBay. Part-Time Pizza delivery, cashier at 7-11, door man at 5 star resort and volunteer for the poor.

Education: PhD of MIT University in Psychology

Available Upon Request: Relatives