Aug 28, 2008
LBJ's Triumph
Politicoasked African-American political and business leaders to reflect on the significance of Barack Obama's nomination. The quotes make for an interesting read, especially this one from Roger Wilkins, one of LBJ's most significant allies in the civil rights community:
"I’m 76 years old, and I have participated in one aspect of the struggle or another since I was a teenager in high school. After I grew up, I understood that this wasn’t an effort that you accomplished in one lifetime or one great magic movement, as we held in the 1950s and 1960s. It was long-range project. You know that you have to keep pushing and you know that you have to keep struggling. And you don’t know exactly how it will come out, but you believe the struggle is worth it because you know there is more decency in the country then the status quo has it. ... Well, I never, back in the ‘60s, I never pushed with the idea that sometime in my lifetime a black person would get to be president of the United States. It never occurred to me."
Party conventions make no claim to historical accuracy. This convention coincided not only with the 88th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote and the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's"I have a Dream Address" but also the 100th anniversary of LBJ's birth. The first two events, appropriately, have been celebrated. The third has essentially been overlooked. George Packer and Robert Caro reflect on the unfortunate historical amnesia.
"I’m 76 years old, and I have participated in one aspect of the struggle or another since I was a teenager in high school. After I grew up, I understood that this wasn’t an effort that you accomplished in one lifetime or one great magic movement, as we held in the 1950s and 1960s. It was long-range project. You know that you have to keep pushing and you know that you have to keep struggling. And you don’t know exactly how it will come out, but you believe the struggle is worth it because you know there is more decency in the country then the status quo has it. ... Well, I never, back in the ‘60s, I never pushed with the idea that sometime in my lifetime a black person would get to be president of the United States. It never occurred to me."
Party conventions make no claim to historical accuracy. This convention coincided not only with the 88th anniversary of women gaining the right to vote and the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's"I have a Dream Address" but also the 100th anniversary of LBJ's birth. The first two events, appropriately, have been celebrated. The third has essentially been overlooked. George Packer and Robert Caro reflect on the unfortunate historical amnesia.