What Kind of Leadership Expanded Civil Rights?
TOOLBOX   Resize
 Save/Share +
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
|
According to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, "it took a president," namely Lyndon B. Johnson, to accomplish an important goal of Martin Luther King Jr.'s, namely passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ["Clinton's King Comment 'Ill-Advised,' Obama Says," front page, Jan. 14].
Ms. Clinton fails to give King credit where credit is due. This, indeed, sounds more like a "fairy tale" to me. Yes, Johnson ultimately signed the Civil Rights Act, but King's rousing speeches, his organization of the 1955-56 Montgomery bus boycott, and all of his nonviolent protests and arrests were obviously more than words. They laid the groundwork for a sea of civil rights change in America.
If it wasn't for King, Rosa Parks and numerous other civil rights activists from that era, the country and the president would not have been so primed for legislative action.
JENNIFER WOLFF
Bowie
¿
Our democracy is in trouble if those citizens who criticize our invasion of Iraq can be labeled anti-American, those who criticize Israeli policies can be called anti-Semitic and those who criticize Sen. Barack Obama can be accused of racism.
J. SRI RAM
Rockville
