Clarence B. Jones: The 80th Birthday of Dr. King and the Inauguration of Obama as President
[Clarence B. Jones is the former personal counsel, advisor, draft speech writer and close friend of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He is a Scholar in Residence at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Institute at Stanford University. His forthcoming book titled What Would Martin Say will be published by HarperCollins in April 2008.]
January 15th, 2009 will mark what would have been the 80th birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. On January 19th we commemorate Dr. King's birthday as a national holiday. The following day, "January 20th, a country that, within living memory, denied some black citizens the right to vote will inaugurate its first black president. A man with a funny name and African blood will stand where 43 white men have stood before him and take the oath of office."
August 28th, 2008 in Denver, Colorado, Senator Obama accepted the Democratic Party's nomination as its candidate for president of the United States. His acceptance speech was 40 years to the day of Dr. King's "I Have A Dream" speech at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. At the time I thought it would have been appropriate for Senator Obama, in his speech to the Democratic Party National Convention, to specifically acknowledge the historic coincidence of his nomination on the 40th Anniversary of Dr. King's "I Have A Dream."
Presumably, Senator Obama, his advisors and speech writers concluded that a passing reference to "a preacher from Georgia" 40 years ago in the acceptance speech was sufficient acknowledgment of the coincidence of both his and Dr. King's historic address to the "March On Washington" on the same date, August 28th, 1963.
Respectfully, I'd suggest that was a mistake.
Now that Obama has become America's first African-American president elect, I hope that in his inaugural address, the day following our national holiday commemorating Dr. King's birthday, he will make specific reference to the confluence of these two historic events in our nation's capital.
Recently I spent a week in Paris as the guest of the French organization, SOS Racisme. My invitation was part of Paris's celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the Ninth World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates and commemoration of the legacy of Dr. King, 40 years after his death.
Nobel Laureates F. W. de Klerk of South Africa (1993 joint recipient with Nelson Mandela), David Hume of Northern Ireland, Ingrid Betancourt (former presidential candidate in Columbia, and a prisoner of the FARC guerillas for several years), and Lech Walesa of Poland gathered to bestow their annual "Peace Award" on Bono, the Irish musician and political activist. (Mikhail Gorbachev was absent because of medical reasons.) First Lady Carla Bruni Sarkozy and Bertrand Delanoe, Mayor of Paris were also present.
The questions most asked of me during the Conference were:
Is Barack Obama another Martin Luther King, Jr?
What would Dr. King say about the election of Obama?
Is the election of Obama as the first African-American president of the United States mean that Dr. King's dream has been fulfilled?
Did I ever think an African-American would become president of the United States 40 years after the death of Dr. King?
Does Obama's election indicate that racism for all practical purposes no longer exist in America?
Will Obama's election have any impact upon the number of African-American men incarcerated of the high percentage of out of wedlock births within the African-American community?
Having witnessed history first-hand with Dr. King and being fortunate to be one of his few advisors to live to witness the history-in-the-making that is the Obama presidency, I uniquely bridge a gap. I have both the honor and the responsibility to try and answer the overarching question: What would Martin Luther King, Jr. say about Senator Barack Obama's election as President of the United States?
Dr. King had an abiding belief in the basic goodness, fairness and decency of America. He never abandoned his confidence that a majority of Americans would ultimately embrace the precepts of our Declaration of Independence: That all persons are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.
He never doubted or lost faith in his religion, nor the righteousness of God. Martin would probably smile and say "Amen" as he listened to Senator Obama say, more than once, during the closing weeks of his presidential campaign that we have a "righteous wind at our back, but we can't slow down now."
Dr. King's faith and abiding belief in God was the core of his moral leadership. President-elect Obama's religion and faith in God appear central to his political leadership. Rev. Joseph Lowery, of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference has been invited to deliver the benediction closing prayer. Martin would undoubtedly commend Obama for the invitation asking Rev. Lowery, his comrade Pastor and a co-founder of his SCLC, to deliver the Inaugural Benediction.
A somewhat more complex call to make would be Martin's take on Obama's invitation to Pastor Rick Warren of the evangelical Saddleback mega-church in Orange County, CA, to deliver the invocation at his inauguration. It has created a firestorm of criticism from his gay, lesbian and liberal supporters. But I think the invitation to Pastor Warren is consistent with the new paradigm of President-elect Obama's political leadership.
The basis for the criticism of Obama is Pastor Warren's opposition to same sex marriage. Moreover, he worked publicly in support of "Proposition 8" in the State of California. Prop 8 was a California ballot proposition that changed the state Constitution to restrict the legal definition of marriage to a union between a man and a woman only. The majority of people in California and throughout the United States appear to oppose same sex marriage. A substantial number of persons and states recognize "civil unions" as appropriate among same sex couples. This is the current political reality in the United States today.
And more to the point, Rick Warren's acceptance of Obama's invitation in light of the President-elect's stated vision and strategy of a new coalition politics of inclusion may well say more about Warren's flexibility on the issue than Obama's.
"Seeing the things that Pastor Rick Warren and Reverend Joseph Lowery have in common is more important than seeing the things that separate them. America needs to see that. It's a step down the road where a majority of us see the things that straight Americans in love want are the same things that gay Americans in love want, too." [Huffington Post]
But this issue in some ways distracts us from the core question. Martin didn't need nor did he ask for my advice or that of other close advisors on issues of religious or moral conviction. Many people often forget that he was an ordained Christian Minister of the Gospel before he was a "civil rights" leader. Consequently, I will not hazard a guess as to what his position on same sex marriage might be. He would take measure of Barack Obama's religious conviction, and see the man as a moral Christian leader.
On the issue of race, Martin would remind us of what Dr. W.E.B. Dubois said in 1903: That the problem of the 20th Century was the "color line" and, that "race" has been the most divisive theme in the history of America. He would say, therefore, that the challenge of the 21st Century is how the United States can transition from its legacy of slavery and segregation (which defined race relations in America for previous generations) to a multi-racial society predicated on the pursuit of excellence. He would probably say that as a country, we must come to terms with our past of slavery, segregation and racial discrimination. Until this occurs relations principally between whites and African-Americans will continue to define much of who we are as a nation.
Reverend Jesse Jackson has eloquently described Dr. King as "a minority dreamer with a majority vision." Martin bequeathed to us a unique and historic opportunity to chart a new direction. However, he knew this could not be done without a substantial base of support within the majority white community.
After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and the assumption of the presidency by former Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, some of us who worked closely with Dr. King, concluded: no fundamental change in race relations in America could be accomplished successfully and sustained unless it was done under the political leadership of a white man from the south. Major historic Civil Rights legislation under President Lyndon Johnson was followed by the presidencies of other white southern political leaders. Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush seemed to validate this original political thesis. Our belief was predicated on the assumed political analysis that America would be more willing to follow a white southern political leader on the issue of race relations and equal economic opportunity than any politician from another part of our country.
We never contemplated the realistic possibility of a black President of the United States in Martin's or our lifetimes.
The election of Senator Barack Obama as President upends this political assumption. The magnitude and diverse geography of his Electoral College victory represents an ethnic, age, gender, and voter demographic political tsunami. November 4th, 2008 is likely to realign the political landscape of America for years to come.
During the years 40 years following Martin's assassination in Memphis, TN, the most recurring question asked of me has been: "Who today, i.e., what 'Black Leader,' if anyone, is most like Dr. King?" I would consistently answer, that Martin was sui generis, one of a kind. And, then ask rhetorically: "Who today is most like Michelangelo, Mozart, Galileo, Copernicus, Aristotle, Beethoven or Shakespeare?"
Until the election of Barack Obama, I would also consistently add that "in 12 years and 4 months, from 1956 to April 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., may have done more to foster racial, social and political justice in our country than any other event or person in the previous 400 years."
Now, confronted with the magnitude of domestic and international issues that will require his attention, an African-American President Barack Obama, during the next 8 years, may do more to foster racial, social, political and justice and economic opportunity in America than has been achieved by any other event or person, including Dr. King, in the previous 408 years. I never thought as Martin's former close advisor and speechwriter that I would live long enough to ever publicly write or say these words....
Read entire article at Huffington Post (Blog)
January 15th, 2009 will mark what would have been the 80th birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. On January 19th we commemorate Dr. King's birthday as a national holiday. The following day, "January 20th, a country that, within living memory, denied some black citizens the right to vote will inaugurate its first black president. A man with a funny name and African blood will stand where 43 white men have stood before him and take the oath of office."
August 28th, 2008 in Denver, Colorado, Senator Obama accepted the Democratic Party's nomination as its candidate for president of the United States. His acceptance speech was 40 years to the day of Dr. King's "I Have A Dream" speech at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC. At the time I thought it would have been appropriate for Senator Obama, in his speech to the Democratic Party National Convention, to specifically acknowledge the historic coincidence of his nomination on the 40th Anniversary of Dr. King's "I Have A Dream."
Presumably, Senator Obama, his advisors and speech writers concluded that a passing reference to "a preacher from Georgia" 40 years ago in the acceptance speech was sufficient acknowledgment of the coincidence of both his and Dr. King's historic address to the "March On Washington" on the same date, August 28th, 1963.
Respectfully, I'd suggest that was a mistake.
Now that Obama has become America's first African-American president elect, I hope that in his inaugural address, the day following our national holiday commemorating Dr. King's birthday, he will make specific reference to the confluence of these two historic events in our nation's capital.
Recently I spent a week in Paris as the guest of the French organization, SOS Racisme. My invitation was part of Paris's celebration of the 60th Anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights, the Ninth World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates and commemoration of the legacy of Dr. King, 40 years after his death.
Nobel Laureates F. W. de Klerk of South Africa (1993 joint recipient with Nelson Mandela), David Hume of Northern Ireland, Ingrid Betancourt (former presidential candidate in Columbia, and a prisoner of the FARC guerillas for several years), and Lech Walesa of Poland gathered to bestow their annual "Peace Award" on Bono, the Irish musician and political activist. (Mikhail Gorbachev was absent because of medical reasons.) First Lady Carla Bruni Sarkozy and Bertrand Delanoe, Mayor of Paris were also present.
The questions most asked of me during the Conference were:
Is Barack Obama another Martin Luther King, Jr?
What would Dr. King say about the election of Obama?
Is the election of Obama as the first African-American president of the United States mean that Dr. King's dream has been fulfilled?
Did I ever think an African-American would become president of the United States 40 years after the death of Dr. King?
Does Obama's election indicate that racism for all practical purposes no longer exist in America?
Will Obama's election have any impact upon the number of African-American men incarcerated of the high percentage of out of wedlock births within the African-American community?
Having witnessed history first-hand with Dr. King and being fortunate to be one of his few advisors to live to witness the history-in-the-making that is the Obama presidency, I uniquely bridge a gap. I have both the honor and the responsibility to try and answer the overarching question: What would Martin Luther King, Jr. say about Senator Barack Obama's election as President of the United States?
Dr. King had an abiding belief in the basic goodness, fairness and decency of America. He never abandoned his confidence that a majority of Americans would ultimately embrace the precepts of our Declaration of Independence: That all persons are created equal, and endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.
He never doubted or lost faith in his religion, nor the righteousness of God. Martin would probably smile and say "Amen" as he listened to Senator Obama say, more than once, during the closing weeks of his presidential campaign that we have a "righteous wind at our back, but we can't slow down now."
Dr. King's faith and abiding belief in God was the core of his moral leadership. President-elect Obama's religion and faith in God appear central to his political leadership. Rev. Joseph Lowery, of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference has been invited to deliver the benediction closing prayer. Martin would undoubtedly commend Obama for the invitation asking Rev. Lowery, his comrade Pastor and a co-founder of his SCLC, to deliver the Inaugural Benediction.
A somewhat more complex call to make would be Martin's take on Obama's invitation to Pastor Rick Warren of the evangelical Saddleback mega-church in Orange County, CA, to deliver the invocation at his inauguration. It has created a firestorm of criticism from his gay, lesbian and liberal supporters. But I think the invitation to Pastor Warren is consistent with the new paradigm of President-elect Obama's political leadership.
The basis for the criticism of Obama is Pastor Warren's opposition to same sex marriage. Moreover, he worked publicly in support of "Proposition 8" in the State of California. Prop 8 was a California ballot proposition that changed the state Constitution to restrict the legal definition of marriage to a union between a man and a woman only. The majority of people in California and throughout the United States appear to oppose same sex marriage. A substantial number of persons and states recognize "civil unions" as appropriate among same sex couples. This is the current political reality in the United States today.
And more to the point, Rick Warren's acceptance of Obama's invitation in light of the President-elect's stated vision and strategy of a new coalition politics of inclusion may well say more about Warren's flexibility on the issue than Obama's.
"Seeing the things that Pastor Rick Warren and Reverend Joseph Lowery have in common is more important than seeing the things that separate them. America needs to see that. It's a step down the road where a majority of us see the things that straight Americans in love want are the same things that gay Americans in love want, too." [Huffington Post]
But this issue in some ways distracts us from the core question. Martin didn't need nor did he ask for my advice or that of other close advisors on issues of religious or moral conviction. Many people often forget that he was an ordained Christian Minister of the Gospel before he was a "civil rights" leader. Consequently, I will not hazard a guess as to what his position on same sex marriage might be. He would take measure of Barack Obama's religious conviction, and see the man as a moral Christian leader.
On the issue of race, Martin would remind us of what Dr. W.E.B. Dubois said in 1903: That the problem of the 20th Century was the "color line" and, that "race" has been the most divisive theme in the history of America. He would say, therefore, that the challenge of the 21st Century is how the United States can transition from its legacy of slavery and segregation (which defined race relations in America for previous generations) to a multi-racial society predicated on the pursuit of excellence. He would probably say that as a country, we must come to terms with our past of slavery, segregation and racial discrimination. Until this occurs relations principally between whites and African-Americans will continue to define much of who we are as a nation.
Reverend Jesse Jackson has eloquently described Dr. King as "a minority dreamer with a majority vision." Martin bequeathed to us a unique and historic opportunity to chart a new direction. However, he knew this could not be done without a substantial base of support within the majority white community.
After the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, and the assumption of the presidency by former Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, some of us who worked closely with Dr. King, concluded: no fundamental change in race relations in America could be accomplished successfully and sustained unless it was done under the political leadership of a white man from the south. Major historic Civil Rights legislation under President Lyndon Johnson was followed by the presidencies of other white southern political leaders. Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush seemed to validate this original political thesis. Our belief was predicated on the assumed political analysis that America would be more willing to follow a white southern political leader on the issue of race relations and equal economic opportunity than any politician from another part of our country.
We never contemplated the realistic possibility of a black President of the United States in Martin's or our lifetimes.
The election of Senator Barack Obama as President upends this political assumption. The magnitude and diverse geography of his Electoral College victory represents an ethnic, age, gender, and voter demographic political tsunami. November 4th, 2008 is likely to realign the political landscape of America for years to come.
During the years 40 years following Martin's assassination in Memphis, TN, the most recurring question asked of me has been: "Who today, i.e., what 'Black Leader,' if anyone, is most like Dr. King?" I would consistently answer, that Martin was sui generis, one of a kind. And, then ask rhetorically: "Who today is most like Michelangelo, Mozart, Galileo, Copernicus, Aristotle, Beethoven or Shakespeare?"
Until the election of Barack Obama, I would also consistently add that "in 12 years and 4 months, from 1956 to April 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr., may have done more to foster racial, social and political justice in our country than any other event or person in the previous 400 years."
Now, confronted with the magnitude of domestic and international issues that will require his attention, an African-American President Barack Obama, during the next 8 years, may do more to foster racial, social, political and justice and economic opportunity in America than has been achieved by any other event or person, including Dr. King, in the previous 408 years. I never thought as Martin's former close advisor and speechwriter that I would live long enough to ever publicly write or say these words....