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| Bloody Sunday-March 7, 1965 |
This past weekend marked the 50th anniversary/ commemoration of Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama. President Barack Obama delivered a stirring keynote address in front of thousands at the base of the Edmund Pettus Bridge. His 40 minute speech was part history lesson, a reminder of our dark past, a thank you to the grassroots leaders who led the fight, and an encouragement that we still have much work to do.
Here is an excerpt of one of the most often quoted (by the media) sections of his speech:
"...Selma shows us that America is not the project of any one person. Because the single most powerful word in our democracy is the word “We.” We The People....We Shall Overcome...Yes We Can. It is owned by no one. It belongs to everyone. Oh, what a glorious task we are given, to continually try to improve this great nation of ours."
I wonder if President Obama was also thinking of (or had he forgotten) April 9, 1939...when Marian Anderson began to sing "My Country, 'Tis of Thee" on the steps of The Lincoln Memorial. She had been invited to sing in Washington by Howard University because of her international fame, but was denied to sing at Constitution Hall because she was Black. The Lincoln Memorial (talk about a symbolic slap in the face to racist America) was selected because it was an outdoor national monument and therefore not segregated.
When she got to the third line of the song, she made a revolutionary and startling change to the lyrics...instead of "of thee I sing" she sang "to thee we sing." Many years after the concert, she explained why:
"We cannot live alone...And the thing that made the moment possible for you and for me, has been brought about by many people whom we will never know."
A poignant reminder that those who often affect the most change never end up in the history books...thank you to all of those on Bloody Sunday who we never knew!
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