57 Years Ago Today . . .

. . . George Wallace, then Governor of Alabama, in a publicity stunt to dramatize his inaugural promise of "segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" stood in a doorway on the campus of the University of Alabama to block two African American students from entering the sacredly white University. President John F. Kennedy federalized the Alabama National Guard. Guard General Henry Graham flanked Deputy Attorney General Nicholas Katzenbach and the two commanded Wallace to step aside.  He did.

That evening of June 11th, President Kennedy addressed the nation in a "Report to the American People on Civil Rights." His words read today, fifty-seven years later, are still as pertinent, unfortunately, as they were then. What he said led to the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which but for his assassination might never have been passed. 

JFK: 
“. . . it ought to be possible for American citizens of any color to register and to vote in a free election without interference or fear of reprisal.

It ought to be possible, in short, for every American to enjoy the privileges of being American without regard to his race or his color.

In short, every American ought to have the right to be treated as he would wish to be treated, as one would wish his children to be treated. But this is not the case….

...This is not a sectional issue…Nor is this a partisan issue…This is not even a legal or legislative issue alone. It is better to settle these matters in the courts than on the streets, and new laws are needed at every level, but law alone cannot make men see right.

We are confronted primarily with a moral issue. It is as old as the scriptures and is as clear as the American Constitution.

The heart of the question is — whether all Americans are to be afforded equal rights and equal opportunities. Whether we are going to treat our fellow Americans as we want to be treated. If an American, because his skin is dark, cannot eat lunch in a restaurant open to the public, if he cannot send his children to the best public school available, if he cannot vote for the public officials who represent him, if, in short, he cannot enjoy the full and free life which all of us want, then who among us would be content to have the color of his skin changed and stand in his place? Who among us would then be content with the counsels of patience and delay?

One hundred years of delay have passed since President Lincoln freed the slaves, yet their heirs, their grandsons, are not fully free….

...It is not enough to pin the blame on others, to say this is a problem of one section of the country or another, or deplore the facts that we face. A great change is at hand, and our task, our obligation, is to make that revolution, that change, peaceful and constructive for all.

Those who do nothing are inviting shame as well as violence. Those who act boldly are recognizing right as well as reality…”

(To relive Kennedy's address click here. https://www.com/watch?v=7BEhKgoA86U)

Today, in 2020, Kennedy’s words sting; too often, for half a century, too many of us have done nothing, "inviting shame as well as violence." 

This is not a police problem. This is not a voter suppression problem or an sentencing equity problem or a no-knock warrant problem. This is a moral problem "as old as the scriptures" and as "clear as the American Constitution."

I write to ask what will it take? Must we again suffer the trauma of seeing a leader's blood spilled to move the nation forward?  Is not the blood of George Floyd and JT Williams and Manuel Ellis and Ahmaud Arbery and tens of others more than enough to make us see, care, speak, and act? Let us stop being “those who do nothing”, those who, in the words of my daughter, stand "wringing their hands in dismay and clutching their pearls."  It is past time “to act boldly”, to “recognize right as well as reality” and to create lasting change.

Let us take President Kennedy's words into our marrow and begin anew, now.