By Sr. Correspondent,  D. Kevin McNeir

In 1963, after years of protests, sit-ins, deferred dreams, lynchings, murders and legal confrontations, 250,000 civil rights supporters gathered in the nation's capitol for one of the largest and most unforgettable political rallies in U.S. history. It would be referred to as the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. The date was August 28th.

 

 
 
It was during the march that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, delivered his historic "I Have a Dream" speech in which he advocated racial harmony, envisioning a future perhaps not to be enjoyed personally but certainly available to his four children, when all races, particularly blacks and whites who had been in conflict since the days of slavery, could live together in harmony as equals.

It was a defining moment for the civil rights movement but more than that it was a day that all Americans, regardless of race, creed or color (today we would add sexual orientation) should never forget.
Ironically, on that same date, August 28th, some 45 years later in Denver, Colorado at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, a U.S. Senator from the state of Illinois, the son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya on the continent of Africa, a man referred to and comfortable with being identified as a black man, would accept his party's nomination as its candidate for president of the United States. Little did we know that Barack Obama would sail into the White House and become the first African-American president in this country's history.

While King's speech would be heard countless times because of the advent of television cameras and the ability to tape the march, Obama was heard in real time - using satellites, cell phones and the Internet to transport his message of change to almost every hill and valley on the planet.

However, in one respect both men demanded the same things despite their coming from two very different generations - jobs and freedom for all Americans. Now, as we try to make sense of powerful banks that have folded, mighty automobile companies that stand on the brink of bankruptcy and an increasing number of able-bodied men and women who for the first time in their lives face an uncertain future without jobs, health insurance and for those who lack faith in the Creator - hope. Indeed, these are certainly the "times that try man's soul."
And yet Dr. King, like President Obama today, must have felt equally as frustrated, even disheartened by the series of events that had taken him from his small church in Montgomery, Alabama to the gleaming steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
For a while, chaos would rule the land marked by the senseless assassinations of Malcolm X, John F. Kennedy, King and then Robert F. Kennedy. Anger would reach epidemic proportions as urban centers from Detroit to Newark exploded in riots. It was a time when many doubted if this country would survive as we were rocked to our very core.

And yet somehow we did survive. As Annie would sing in that classic Broadway play, "the sun will come out tomorrow." But the remnants of civil unrest, shattered dreams and the possibility of more destruction in the future, would remain -- "lest we forget."

August 28th is a day that we should tell our children and our grandchildren about. Indeed, it is one date that we should always remember, because it was on that day that the unthinkable occurred - not once in America's history but twice. It was a day when the people of this country paused, when hope was reborn and when we dared to dream once more about a future where all of our citizens could exist together in peace.