{"id":187,"date":"2008-08-29T09:15:58","date_gmt":"2008-08-29T13:15:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mrclapper.com\/blog2\/?p=187"},"modified":"2008-08-29T09:15:58","modified_gmt":"2008-08-29T13:15:58","slug":"what-i-want-to-be-when-i-grow-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mrclapper.com\/blog2\/?p=187","title":{"rendered":"What I want to be when I grow up…"},"content":{"rendered":"

A historian capable of telling stories and explaining why those stories matter. Robert Caro’s brief editorial in yesterday’s Times<\/a>was powerful stuff. <\/p>\n

His conclusion: <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Abraham Lincoln struck off the chains of black Americans,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I have written, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153but it was Lyndon Johnson who led them into voting booths, closed democracy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sacred curtain behind them, placed their hands upon the lever that gave them a hold on their own destiny, made them, at last and forever, a true part of American political life.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

LOOK what has been wrought! Forty-three years ago, a mere blink in history\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s eye, many black Americans were unable to vote. Tonight, a black American ascends a stage as nominee for president. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Just give Negroes the vote and many of these problems will get better,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Lyndon Johnson said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Just give them the vote,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and they can do the rest for themselves.<\/p>\n

All during this long primary campaign, after reading, first thing every morning, newspaper articles about Barack Obama\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s campaign for the presidency, I would turn, as part of the research for my next book, to newspaper articles from 1965 about Lyndon Johnson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s campaign to win for black people the right to vote.<\/p>\n

And I would think about Johnson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s great speech, when he adopted the rallying cry of black protest as his own, when he joined his voice to the voices of all the men and women who had sung the mighty hymn of the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King cried when he heard that speech. Since I am not black, I cannot know \u00e2\u20ac\u201d cannot even imagine \u00e2\u20ac\u201d Dr. King\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s feelings. I know mine, however. To me, Barack Obama is the inheritor of Lyndon Johnson\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s civil rights legacy. As I sit listening to Mr. Obama tonight, I will be hearing other words as well. I will be hearing Lyndon Johnson saying, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We shall overcome.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Barack Obama speaking last night: <\/p>\n

And it is that promise that forty five years ago today, brought Americans from every corner of this land to stand together on a Mall in Washington, before Lincoln\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Memorial, and hear a young preacher from Georgia speak of his dream.<\/p>\n

The men and women who gathered there could\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve heard many things. They could\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve heard words of anger and discord. They could\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been told to succumb to the fear and frustration of so many dreams deferred.<\/p>\n

But what the people heard instead \u00e2\u20ac\u201c people of every creed and color, from every walk of life \u00e2\u20ac\u201c is that in America, our destiny is inextricably linked. That together, our dreams can be one.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We cannot walk alone,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d the preacher cried. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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A historian capable of telling stories and explaining why those stories matter. Robert Caro’s brief editorial in yesterday’s Timeswas powerful stuff. His conclusion: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Abraham Lincoln struck off the chains of black Americans,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I have written, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153but it was Lyndon Johnson who led them into voting booths, closed democracy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sacred curtain behind them, placed their hands … Continue reading What I want to be when I grow up…<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8rNFZ-31","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrclapper.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrclapper.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrclapper.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrclapper.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrclapper.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrclapper.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/187\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mrclapper.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrclapper.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mrclapper.com\/blog2\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}