Steps to the Mountaintop...

March on Washington Leaders

August 1963

This week in class we considered the following question:

Does the leader make the movement or the movement make the leader?

The "correct answer" is probably a little of both...but, if forced to choose I would strongly lean toward the grassroots "making" the leader. 

Grassroots

The common or ordinary people...especially as contrasted with 

the leadership or "elites" of a political party, social organization, etc.

One of my all time heroes, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., didn't develop out of the ether and suddenly land on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial or give his "Mountaintop Speech" in Memphis, Tennessee...how did Dr. King get to the Mountaintop?!?

I believe he was swept up to the podium by decades of struggle...pain...perseverance...pride...love...and by the hope of a better tomorrow!

"98"

Swept up those 98 steps from the Reflecting Pool to the top of the Lincoln Memorial...swept up by 98 years (since the end of the Civil War) of belief...song...action...Thousands of ordinary people believing in extraordinary things.

Civil Rights Movement - Examples of The Grassroots

• The NAACP
• WWI Vets
• Harlem Renaissance Artists
• Labor Unions
• Sharecroppers
• African-American Newspapers
• African-American Women
• WWII Vets
• CORE
• The Black Church
• SCLC
• SNCC
• Teachers
• The Black Power Movement
• The Communist Party of America

Watch "Mountaintop"excerpt...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1IQfRRl_W4

"Well, I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountaintop....And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But, I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But, I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land! And so I'm happy, tonight...I'm not worried about anything....I'm not fearing any man! Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord!"