It is almost incredible to realize, but the fact remains that the United States supported and pursued a hard-fought victory over German oppression and racial hatred as it emerged in the NAZI period, whilst at the same time accepting rigid racist practices and policies in their own large backyard as a solid fixture of American society. It continued to sustain such practices well into the sixties, even as it became apparent, through international treaties and emerging common standards in our world regarding discrimination of any kind, that America stood quite alone in this throughout the western world. In 1954, some years before Martin Luther King effectively entered the stage, the US Supreme Court took a landslide decision regarding racist (segregationist) regulations regarding schooling. This decision marked a period in which many such decisions were taken in the battle of the Supreme Court against statutory schemes and state court decisions that served as "an endorsement of the doctrine of White Supremacy” (Source: Legal History Blog – http://legalhistoryblog.blogspot.com/). Yet it took many years more for the US to really come to grips with the concept of equal civil (and human) rights for all, regardless color.
By the same token no one at the time, not even in the sixties, would have predicted the advent of a ‘black’ American president in the early 21st Century. And most certainly no one could have predicted the strong association which this upcoming President has already generated among many, both inside and outside the US, with hope, change and a truly better world.
I have been watching a historic video clip tonight, dating from 1966 when Martin Luther King marched his followers through Chicago. The words he speaks are a prime source of history and to some degree they can still serve a a guiding light for the future. In that march, Dr King was stoned by an angry crowd of ‘whites’. “I’ve been hit so many times, I am immune to it,” Dr King dryly responds. Earlier on, in a speech, he conceded to his tiredness of marching, all that endless marching. It sounded like a desperation. Why does it take the American society so long to come to the realization that all men are equal, wherever they come from.
Civil rights demonstratrion, US, in the sixties
Today we continue to struggle with substantive echo’s of pure racism. We have denounced it, but the sentiments across the racial, ethnic and cultural dividing lines have not disappeared. The new American President no doubt will be a major contribution on the further path of equal recognition, but how far will this be?
Dr Martin Luther King
In King’s last speech he spoke of ‘having been on the mountain top’. “I’ve seen the promised land.” It was a daring promise, an expression of personal courage and an admonition to all to act in similar courage. Next to his eternally beautiful 'I have a dream' speech, his ‘Mountaintop speech’ can stand out as one of exceptional force and truthfulness (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0FiCxZKuv8&feature=related).
“I may not get there with you,” he said. And we know he was so right. But perhaps the next few years will indeed see the American people but also the rest of the world make a few next steps towards that promise. We all need greater understanding, in each of our countries, and greater tolerance, if we want this planet to be a happy place in the eternity of the universe surrounding us.
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