august 28, 1963: a dual legacy

Barack Obama delivers his acceptance speech tonight to the Democratic National Convention, on the anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and Martin Luther King, Jr.’s iconic “I Have a Dream” speech. The legacy of August 28, 1963 is not so simple as that, though; the march was the centerpiece of a time of delicate (and often incendiary) political negotiation, and Obama’s nomination evokes not only Dr. King’s legacy but that of the other parties involved.

The purpose of the March on Washington was heavily disputed within the leadership of the Civil Rights Movement. Various groups considered it a gesture of support for John F. Kennedy’s Civil Rights Bill, a wider-reaching statement on the political, social, and economic inequality between races, or, conversely, a demonstration against the same Civil Rights Bill, which some considered to be a textbook example of too little, too late. The African American community has always faced internal divisions over varying degrees of radicalism and attitudes toward their historical oppressors, and Obama has already spoken eloquently and intelligently on the subject of race and racism in America.

The events of August 28, 1963 involved another key player, of course, and another figure whose legacy is of vast importance to Barack Obama’s campaign for president: John F. Kennedy, whose civil rights legislation was in question and who initially opposed the march, fearing, the recently published journals of Arthur Schlesinger suggest, that the march would not attract enough demonstrators and that the weak turnout would undermine his efforts to push the bill through Congress. Kennedy was, of course, a leader whose rise to power very much resembled Barack Obama’s thus far; a charismatic, young candidate, he represented hope and change for a stagnant Washington.

In any case, whatever your background and political leanings, I’d watch Barack Obama’s speech tonight. It should be interesting.