Cowardice asks the question: Is it safe? Expediency asks the question: Is it politic? Vanity asks the question: Is it popular? But conscience asks the question: Is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular…but one must take it because it’s right.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
See also Martin Luther King Jr. on ghetto schools.
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I watched many news and documentary programs on the 63’ March, and the 50 year commemoration March. I listened to pundits, listened to activists- past and present and listened to politicians. There seems to be some awakening in North Carolina and Florida. Martin had a dream, and asked moral questions. He preached to the nation and many listened. Was “legal” segregation right? N0! The Supreme Court in a 9-0 decision, in 1954, said NO to “legal” segregation! The Marchers in 63’ nine years later, said NO! The Civil Rights bill in 64’ and “Bloody Sunday” and the 65’ Voting Rights Act, said NO!
De facto segregation is still “legal” and in the 70s Supreme Court decisions in Detroit and elsewhere made it impossible for the Justice Dept. to pursue desegregation across city and county boundaries thus encouraging “white flight” from cities like, Atlanta, Detroit, New Orleans, etc. etc., … Hurricane Katrina exposed the reality and failed policies of the past. When Rosa Parks died a few weeks after the Katrina Hurricane, in Detroit. Politicians of all stripes streamed to venues to honor Rosa Parks. They were all proud to be able to declare “De Jure Segregation” dead. However, they misrepresented the beginnings of the struggle as a “single act” of a heroic woman. Suggested reading: Theoharis, J. (2013) “The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks” to more fully understand the dynamics of the struggle. Parks was no coward and struggled her entire life for what is right!
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