Motley Moose – Archive

August 28th was the final day of a week-long call to action by Rev. William Barber, his call for a  Moral Week of Action.

The topic was Voting Rights and was marked by a rally encouraging people to vote their dreams, not their fears.

(Note: Reverend Barber speaks at 11:27)

More video from the rally and all 7 days of the Moral Week of Action can be found here: Livestream

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The date August 28th was chosen because it was the date in 1955 that a 14 year old black boy, Emmitt Till, was murdered in Mississippi for speaking to a white woman. His murder galvanized the Civil Rights Movement and inspired Rosa Parks to protest in Montgomery AL and was also the day that Martin Luther King led the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and shared his dream.

Transcript: “I Have A Dream”

More …

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr spent a lifetime fighting for working people: for a recognition of the dignity of labor, demanding a living wage to lift all people out of poverty. His cause has become our cause in 2014 as Democrats are fighting for minimum wage increases and our president echoes the words of Dr. King: “… let’s declare that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full time should have to live in poverty.”

In March, 1968, Dr. King was in Memphis to lend support to the striking sanitation workers. They were striking for better wages and working conditions:

On 1 February 1968, two Memphis garbage collectors, Echol Cole and Robert Walker, were crushed to death by a malfunctioning truck. Twelve days later, frustrated by the city’s response to the latest event in a long pattern of neglect and abuse of its black employees, 1,300 black men from the Memphis Department of Public Works went on strike. Sanitation workers, led by garbage-collector-turned-union-organizer, T. O. Jones, and supported by the president of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Jerry Wurf, demanded recognition of their union, better safety standards, and a decent wage.[…]

King himself arrived on 18 March to address a crowd of about 25,000 – the largest indoor gathering the civil rights movement had ever seen.  

Past meets present: where the dream has not yet been realized but is closer than it was 50 years ago.

Rarely seen footage from the March on Washington from “Nobody Turn Me Around: A People’s History of the 1963 March on Washington” by Charles Euchner (h/t DeniseVelez)

From senior White House advisor, Valerie Jarrett:

This Wednesday will mark 50 years since Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech at the base of the Lincoln Memorial; a moment which served to punctuate a movement that changed America.

To honor this occasion, President Obama will be joined Wednesday, August 28th, by President Jimmy Carter and President Bill Clinton, members of the King family and other civil rights leaders and luminaries at the Let Freedom Ring Commemoration and Call to Action event at the Lincoln Memorial, to commemorate Dr. King’s soaring speech and the 1963 March on Washington.  

As we mark this important anniversary, we reflect on what the Civil Rights Movement has meant for the country, and perhaps most importantly, the hard work that lies ahead as we continue to pursue the ideals laid out by Dr. King, and sought by the hundreds of thousands of Americans who marched through our nation’s capital fifty years ago.

For more information on the 50th Anniversary Let Freedom Ring Ceremony and Call to Action Event at the Lincoln Memorial please visit http://officialmlkdream50.com/august-28/.

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UPDATED: From the White House, President Obama’s speech at the Let Freedom Ring rally. (Transcript).

Official White House Photo by Pete Souza

I generally survey a number of news sites around the world and country, choose around 15 articles I can quote, and a few links.  Tonight I am leaning toward social justice.  Sometimes I editorialize.  I also tend not to cover the headlines, but look for smaller stories.  

I am so pleased that our country has re-elected Barack Hussein Obama and I love the overlap of these historic dates.  Yes We Did Again.  

Photo by Flip Schulke, hosted by Alabama Tourism Department.  I was hoping to find a photo in a pulpit, but I liked this one too, Dr. King looks happy.  

It’s not about glamorizing people, it’s about honoring imperfect people who made a sacrifice for us. Jeff Johnson (@JeffsNation)

Newsworks:  Solomon Jones

There Would Be No Obama Without King

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” King wrote in one of the more familiar passages. “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. Never again can we afford to live with the narrow, provincial ‘outside agitator’ idea. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.”

As I read King’s brilliant argument for direct action against injustice, I saw more than a man who lives only in old footage. I saw a father fighting for a better future for his children. I saw a man who was not willing to wait for change. I saw myself.

King wrote of seeing “the vast majority of … twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society.” When I read that I saw Philadelphia, a place where 28 percent of the population-many of them African American-live in poverty while surrounded by wealth.

King went on to write of tears welling up in his six year old daughter’s eyes as he explained to her that she couldn’t go to the amusement park because of segregation. He wrote of the concerns that any husband and father would have for his family, and at that moment I saw King for who he truly was-a man.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta, GA, on Jan 15 in 1929.

Oh, I know we celebrate his birthday later on this month, but I wanted to think about him as a young child, and as a young man before he went on to become an icon of the civil rights movement.  

He was not so very different from many young black men born into a black middle class family.

Like many members of the black middle class his father, Michael was a preacher.

Like many members of the black middle class his mama was a teacher.

Like many members of the black middle class, the family roots were not far removed from poverty.