Motley Moose – Archive

The March from Selma to Montgomery:

On 25 March 1965, Martin Luther King led thousands of nonviolent demonstrators to the steps of the capitol in Montgomery, Alabama, after a 5-day, 54-mile march from Selma, Alabama, where local African Americans, the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) had been campaigning for voting rights.

Dr. King:

I know you are asking today, “How long will it take?” (Speak, sir) Somebody’s asking, “How long will prejudice blind the visions of men, darken their understanding, and drive bright-eyed wisdom from her sacred throne?” Somebody’s asking, “When will wounded justice, lying prostrate on the streets of Selma and Birmingham and communities all over the South, be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men?” Somebody’s asking, “When will the radiant star of hope be plunged against the nocturnal bosom of this lonely night, (Speak, speak, speak) plucked from weary souls with chains of fear and the manacles of death? How long will justice be crucified, (Speak) and truth bear it?” (Yes, sir)

I come to say to you this afternoon, however difficult the moment, (Yes, sir) however frustrating the hour, it will not be long, (No sir) because “truth crushed to earth will rise again.” (Yes, sir)

How long? Not long, (Yes, sir) because “no lie can live forever.” (Yes, sir)

How long? Not long, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.

A look at a memorable May, 1968 night in Boston – and the three men whose actions forty-five years ago helped the city avert a night of violence that afflicted many other cities, after the jump …

In the first week of April, 2008, we had a small family get together at my brother Brad’s house in Key West, Florida.  Donna and I and our kids, Brad and and his wife Jen, my mom and her husband Karl Lutze.  It so happened that the fortieth anniversary of Martin Luther King’s assassination occurred that week, and Brad and I spent the night watching Senator Obama’s “More Perfect Union” speech on my laptop on his porch.  Both children of the sixties – Brad born while JFK was president, me born while Bobby and Martin Luther led our nation towards a better future – the anniversary and the thoughtful speech of Senator Obama struck us as a moment to reflect on the period our lives had spanned.

Moreover, it gave us reason to ponder the period that Karl’s life has spanned.

Karl was in Selma, Alabama and walked across a bridge.  That was not the beginning of Karl’s involvement in civil rights, just one of the things he had been doing for twenty years by that time to create the world that we live in now.