Posted on 08/24/2003 7:54:49 AM PDT by Libloather
King's dream not yet reality
40 years after speech, some see `a long way to go'
By ERIC BERGER
Aug. 23, 2003, 11:00PM
Excerpt from King's speech
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
Politicians, community activists and local residents gathered near downtown Saturday afternoon to mark the 40th anniversary of the civil rights march on Washington when Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his "I have a dream" speech.
The group marched one block in the Third Ward and then heard several speeches in front of the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center.
Although the speakers acknowledged civil rights have come a long way in the four decades since the march -- with minorities no longer subject to "separate but equal" rules and with much better representation in politics -- they said King's dream remains unfulfilled.
"It has not been met," said U.S. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Houston. "I do really believe we have a long way to go."
Speaking underneath a blistering sun in the Third Ward, where abandoned houses stand next to homes without air conditioning, Jackson Lee said equality means jobs, decent housing and economic development for all.
The community center, which has provided services such as food and clothing to the poor for 35 years, was chosen as a backdrop because it is running out of resources and could close if new funding is not found, Lee said.
The 1963 march of some 250,000 people was called to pressure Congress to sign a Civil Rights Act that offered federal protection to African Americans seeking to vote, shop, eat out, and be educated on equal terms.
On Saturday about 1,000 people gathered in Washington at the Lincoln Memorial to celebrate the march and King's speech, which was given as a closing address in 1963.
Also at the Houston event Saturday were Mayor Pro Tem Gordon Quan and state Rep. Sylvester Turner, who is running for mayor. Turner said that if not for the march and King's inspiring words, he might not have gone into public service.
And he said his commitment to civil rights has not waned.
"This is a race that is not a sprint," he said. "It is a long distance race."
The latest of a long list of complaints that will never end...
His successors see nothing but skin color--and think it entitles them to permanent victim status and unlimited government benefits.
Demands equal results because her orientation is unabashedly Marxist.
Of course. Some blacks don't want it to be a reality. They could not use raceism to their benefit then.
Historical fact: no slaveholder in U.S. history had air conditioning.
Lee, and the others of her ilk, will not be satisfied with anything less than the enslavement of all white people. They want revenge and domination, not equality.
Of course, we will never get rid of "poverty" by definition because no matter how rich our society becomes, there will always 20% of the people in bottom 20% of income levels.
In five years, we will be hearing about how our taxes need to be increased to help the poor people who only have one high definition television set.
Yes, but only because of the mean Republicans who care only about the rich...
I read that many years ago an American TV network did a program or series on poverty in America. The Soviet government delighted in telling their people how bad things were in America, so they got a hold of the program and showed it on Soviet TV. The Soviet people couldn't believe how well off the American poor people were.
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