Comments

I would love to have copies of MLK speeches. Any recommendations???

Posted by Troy Worman at January 17, 2005 5:32 PM

Thanks for the blog Tom and sharing the LBJ history. I share the "I Have a Dream" video with my Community College business supervision students as an application of these concepts: planning, leading, motivating, communicating, and diversity training. It should be required in all business management classes.

I dream of the day when this holiday will be enbraced by all the citizens of our great country and not just the African-American population. There was a tremendous price paid for the freedom and rights enjoyed by us caucasians too, just at a different time in history. Not to mention celebrating how our lives have been enriched by interacting with people of different races and ethnicities.

Posted by Kurt Richter at January 17, 2005 5:43 PM

Tom, many thanks for posting this on your site. Your way of focusing on things that really matter, beyond business (in its strictest definition) is one of the things that make your contribution to this world WOW!

I feel it's important to keep people like Dr King in our minds and in our hearts. Yes he had the determination to move mountains. Yes he was a principled individual who spoke his truth calmly most of the time.

"Difference of opinion leads to inquiry, and inquiry to truth." - Thomas Jefferson

And yes LBJ took a very courageous decision for America even if politically costly for the Democrats.

As Mahatma Gandhi said "you have to be the change you want to see in the world". Time for having a dream for the World? Time for taking decisions slightly different than promoting democracy with bombs and invasions? Time for dreaming of more non-violent world leadership?

Can I just leave you with the Seven Deadly Sins as defined by Gandhi? They are important to use as guiding stars too... The Mahatma had a dream too and it may be more relevant today than ever before.

- Wealth without work.
- Pleasure without conscience.
- Knowledge without character.
- Commerce without morality.
- Science without humanity.
- Worship without sacrifice.
- Politics without principle

Posted by Alex at January 17, 2005 6:32 PM

MLK day is embraced by all USA citizens.

LBJ's/democrats' "great society" heavily influenced one ethnic group - ala 70% now born out of wedlock. And the mis-management of the Vietnam war was another macro element of LBJ's/democrats' legacy.

The ideas of MLK - those with vision - prevail - however, reason must guide ideology. Family, ownership, community are the bedrock of freedoms.

Posted by John at January 18, 2005 10:17 AM

On a recent visit to the Lincoln Memorial, I stood on the steps overlooking the mall and imagined that August day in 1963 when Martin Luther King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech. And I wondered: how did all those people end up here that day? Researching that question, I learned about another civil-rights pioneer who helped introduce the masses to Martin Luther King. In 1925, Asa Philip Randolph formed the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first African-American trade union, to bargain for improved working conditions for porters of the Pullman Company. He began organizing the March on Washington Movement in 1941 to protest discriminatory hiring practices in the wartime defense industry. Having devised the demonstration to pressure FDR to intervene, Randolph called it off when the president at last issued an executive order barring discrimination in armament industries and federal agencies.

In 1962, the country suffered in economic recession. Twice as many African-Americans were unemployed than whites; over one and a half million African-Americans looked for work. Two decades after he initially envisioned his march on the capital, Randolph again contemplated an epic Washington rally. Now into his seventies, he began talking to long-time friend and strategist Bayard Rustin about a massive but peaceful protest.

Meanwhile, events in 1963 caused King to contemplate his own grand demonstration. That spring, Birmingham, Alabama, police arrested King for marching in a parade, held him in solitary confinement, and refused his right to legal counsel. And in June, JFK sent Congress a civil rights bill; a large televised demonstration in Washington could impel Congress to endorse the legislation. He instructed his aides to approach Randolph about collaborating.

Randolph and Rustin originally planned to lobby for a new federal jobs program and a higher minimum wage. But the newsworthiness surrounding King’s Birmingham incarceration and the urgency of the pending Kennedy bill expanded the agenda. Appropriately, they named the protest the “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.” Critics and supporters alike tried to persuade Randolph to cancel the march, but he had waited long enough.

Demonstrators came to Washington by car, bus, train, and airplane. Although the marchers were predominantly African-American, people from all races, religions, and social standings participated. Whereas some public figures and luminaries attended, most participants were everyday people—standing in what King later called “majestic dignity.” All three major networks televised the march, one of the first events broadcasted live via satellite around the world.

Thanks to Asa Philip Randolph, the world met Martin Luther King.

Posted by George Brymer at January 19, 2005 9:40 AM

George, let me tell you a little story. I was involved for years with OICW, Opportunities Industrailization Center West, in East Palo Alto--a tough community. The original OIC was started in Philly by the Reverend Leon Sullivan, best known for the Sullivan Principles which guided outside corporate involvement in South Africa in apartheid days. I once hosted an OICW gala at which Rev Sullivan spoke. (Rev Sullivan was a close MLK mentor.) At the conclusion of the event, the imposing Rev Sullivan, about 6ft 6in and in his 80ies at the time, pulled me aside and said, "Young man, you would have made a fine black Baptist preacher." I figure it's about the highest praise I've ever gotten or am ever likely to get!

Posted by tom peters at January 19, 2005 11:30 PM

Great story, Tom. Thanks for sharing it.

Posted by George Brymer at January 20, 2005 11:11 AM