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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 5, 2012)
Septembers, 2012 Opinion articles do not necessarily represent the views o f the Portland Observer. We welcome reader essays, photos and story ideas. 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S. R ep . J ohn L ewis Next year this nation will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 2013. Many of you will be on your way to DC to honor the legacy of a movement that helped liberate, not only African Americans but all Americans from the chains of legal ized segregation. As we approach this significant moment in our history, I challenge you to dig even deeper into your own legacy and reflect upon the importance that Aug. 28 has played in our history. You will find that its history reads like a chronicle of the modem African American story. It was on Aug. 2 8 ,1955,thata 14- year-old boy named Emmett Till was kidnapped from his uncle's home in Money, Miss, and lynched. Many historians mark his death as the launch of the modern-day Civil Rights Movement in America. Just a few months later on Dec. 1,1955, Rosa Parks' action would inspire the boycott o f segregated buses in Montgomery, Ala. that lasted 381 days. On Aug. 28, 1957, Strom T hurm ond, a R epublican senator from South Carolina and a staunch segregationist held the longest filibuster any one senator ever conducted to block passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1957. The bill was written by then Senate Majority Leader Lyndon Johnson, and originally devised as an attempt to mandate voting rights for African Americans by outlaw ing intimidation and coercion at the polls. The filibuster ended with alter ations to the bill, but it did not stop its passage. It was ultimately signed into law by P resident D w ight Eisenhower, establishing the Civil Rights Commission and the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice. Those two agencies con tinue to play powerful roles in help ing to ensure that the voting rights and civil rights of African Ameri cans and all Americans are enforced to this day. On Aug. 28,1963, Dr. King gave his historic I Have A Dream Speech on the National Mall at the March on Washington for Jobs and Free dom. It was a testament to the power of non-violent resistance. But just one year later on Aug. 28,1964, acts of police brutality incited rioting in Philadelphia. O ver300were injured and over 700 arrested. A ltogether seven American cit ies experienced rioting that sum mer including the Harlem riots and, Rochester, N. Y., and those in Paterson and Elizabeth City, N. J. V iolence struck again on the 28th in 1968 outside the Dem ocratic N ational Convention in Chicago due to another episode o f police brutality. By midday on Aug. 28, 2005, Hurricane Katrina slammed the New Orleans coast with 145 mile an hour winds prom pting a m andatory evacuation o f Orleans Parish. And finally on Aug. 28,2008, as if to link this great past to a turning point in America's future, Barack Obama became the first African American Democratic nominee for President of the United States. The story o f Aug. 28 tells a powerful tale of the African Ameri can struggle to dem and respect for human dignity in America. I was there when Dr. King pricked the moral conscience o f the na tion calling us to lay down the burdens o f hate and division. As the last rem aining speaker from the M arch on W ashington I can tell you that the lessons o f that m ake it plain that we cannot de feat the adversaries o f justice in one day, a week or a year. Ours is the struggle of a lifetime. We must dedicate ourselves to this higher calling and stay in the struggle. The only way to make a difference is to get involved and stay engaged, through the highs and lows, the easy times and the difficult struggles. That is the les son of Aug. 28. We have to keep on pushing and pulling knowing with out a doubt that "the arc of the moral universe is long, but it always bends toward justice." That is why we must vote in November and vote like never be fore, not because we have gotten everything we ever wanted from the political process. But because, if we do not join forces together and con tinue to take action, we cannot ever expect to get what we so rightly deserve. U.S. Rep. John Lewis is from Georgia.
