Movement slogans: Then and Now (op-ed)
After “Bloody Sunday” (Day marchers beat by police outside Selma en route to Montgomery -- 1965) President Lyndon B. Johnson met with Alabama Governor George Wallace in the oval office about voting rights.
Johnson told Wallace, “You and I shouldn’t be thinking about 1965; we should be thinking about 1985. Now, in 1985 … What do you want left behind? Do you want a great big marble monument that says ‘George Wallace’: He built? Or do you want a little piece of scrawny pine … That says ‘George Wallace’ He hated?”
Two days later, March 15, 1965, President Johnson addressed a special joint session of congress. The nation watched.
Johnson said, “This was the first nation in the history of the world to be founded with a purpose … The great phrases of that purpose … Are not just empty theories … Those words are promised to every citizen that he shall share in the dignity of man. That dignity cannot be found in a man’s possessions. It cannot be found in his power or in his position. It really rests on his right to be treated as a man equal in opportunity to all others … There is no Constitutional issue here. There is no moral issue. It is wrong -- deadly wrong -- to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote … There is no issue of state’s rights or national rights. There is only the struggle for human rights.
This time, on this issue, there must be no … Compromise with our purpose … Because it’s not just Negroes, but really it’s all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome.”
One reporter stated: If the goal of political speech was to move men to action then this was Johnson’s finest hour.
But for John Lewis, a “Bloody Sunday” march leader, the President’s use of the civil rights slogan transformed the words from “a plea to America’s conscience” to a national consensus. Lewis was beside Martin Luther King Jr. during the presidential address. Lewis recalled, “Dr. King started crying and we all cried.” Then King announced, “We will make it to Montgomery and the Voting Rights Act will be passed.”
(A year before Hillary Clinton was a teenage campaign volunteer for Republican Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. How did Johnson’s speech impact her?)
Today “Black Lives Matter” is the slogan of a movement that has disrupted the presidential campaigns of both parties.
And what has been their finest hour?
An apology from Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley for responding to a “Black Lives Matter” disruption with the phrase: All Lives Matter?
Or was it the recent confrontation with former President Bill Clinton?
When “Black Lives Matter” demanded Hillary Clinton to apologize for mass incarcerations caused by her husband’s anti-crime bill. Bill Clinton accused the protesters of “defending the people who kill the lives you say matter.”
Clinton also told the “Black Lives Matter” protesters to “Tell the truth.”
But Clinton should have reiterated Johnson statement to Wallace and said, “We shouldn’t be thinking about 2016 we should be thinking about 2036. What does your movement want to leave behind?”
How would they have answered that? Would they have told the truth? The most truthful sign I’ve seen held by a “Black Lives Matter” activist read the following: We have every right to seek to destroy a system that seeks to destroy us.
And Clinton could have continued, “Does “Black lives Matter” want a monument saying they built? Or do you want a sentence in history saying “Black Lives Matter” destroyed?”
First published by the New Pittsburgh Courier 4/13/16
Johnson told Wallace, “You and I shouldn’t be thinking about 1965; we should be thinking about 1985. Now, in 1985 … What do you want left behind? Do you want a great big marble monument that says ‘George Wallace’: He built? Or do you want a little piece of scrawny pine … That says ‘George Wallace’ He hated?”
Two days later, March 15, 1965, President Johnson addressed a special joint session of congress. The nation watched.
Johnson said, “This was the first nation in the history of the world to be founded with a purpose … The great phrases of that purpose … Are not just empty theories … Those words are promised to every citizen that he shall share in the dignity of man. That dignity cannot be found in a man’s possessions. It cannot be found in his power or in his position. It really rests on his right to be treated as a man equal in opportunity to all others … There is no Constitutional issue here. There is no moral issue. It is wrong -- deadly wrong -- to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote … There is no issue of state’s rights or national rights. There is only the struggle for human rights.
This time, on this issue, there must be no … Compromise with our purpose … Because it’s not just Negroes, but really it’s all of us, who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice. And we shall overcome.”
One reporter stated: If the goal of political speech was to move men to action then this was Johnson’s finest hour.
But for John Lewis, a “Bloody Sunday” march leader, the President’s use of the civil rights slogan transformed the words from “a plea to America’s conscience” to a national consensus. Lewis was beside Martin Luther King Jr. during the presidential address. Lewis recalled, “Dr. King started crying and we all cried.” Then King announced, “We will make it to Montgomery and the Voting Rights Act will be passed.”
(A year before Hillary Clinton was a teenage campaign volunteer for Republican Presidential candidate Barry Goldwater. How did Johnson’s speech impact her?)
Today “Black Lives Matter” is the slogan of a movement that has disrupted the presidential campaigns of both parties.
And what has been their finest hour?
An apology from Democratic presidential candidate Martin O’Malley for responding to a “Black Lives Matter” disruption with the phrase: All Lives Matter?
Or was it the recent confrontation with former President Bill Clinton?
When “Black Lives Matter” demanded Hillary Clinton to apologize for mass incarcerations caused by her husband’s anti-crime bill. Bill Clinton accused the protesters of “defending the people who kill the lives you say matter.”
Clinton also told the “Black Lives Matter” protesters to “Tell the truth.”
But Clinton should have reiterated Johnson statement to Wallace and said, “We shouldn’t be thinking about 2016 we should be thinking about 2036. What does your movement want to leave behind?”
How would they have answered that? Would they have told the truth? The most truthful sign I’ve seen held by a “Black Lives Matter” activist read the following: We have every right to seek to destroy a system that seeks to destroy us.
And Clinton could have continued, “Does “Black lives Matter” want a monument saying they built? Or do you want a sentence in history saying “Black Lives Matter” destroyed?”
First published by the New Pittsburgh Courier 4/13/16
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