Thursday, August 29, 2013

Thursday Thought

I, like many of us, have listened to a good bit of coverage of the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech.  Fifty years!  Words spoken that were so, and continue to be today, inspiring.



I was reading an excellent article in the paper this morning that exposed an interesting fact about the speech.  It was extemporaneous.
Totally spoken from the heart.
When Dr. King began to make his speech, Mahalia Jackson, a well known gospel singer, shouted out to him. "What about the dream Dr. King, tell them about the dream!"
And from that one of the most impassioned and famous speeches in history flowed.

I follow a wonderful blog by a talented woman who lives in England.

Mrs. Black
Photo courtesy of Minerva from her blog.


 She grew up in California and will often "pop" by my blog to get her California memory fix, she tells me.  On Wednesday she had the most wonderful post up about her recollections of the time surrounding Dr. King's speech and the times that followed.

She is kind enough to let me share it here;

10 comments:

Unknown said...

A great tribute to a very special anniversary.

Mr. Connor said...

Edilma said it very well ! Very interesting times and LOTS of things really happened !

centerofgravity said...

Thanks for posting this. I especially enjoyed reading Minerva's blog. She is a wonderful writer. It would be interesting to know how she went from poverty to living in England.
I also appreciate knowing that Harry Belafonte did not want to exclude white musicians, etc. from the March on Washington. I didn't watch all of the tributes on Wednesday but did catch some of Rep. John Lewis's speech about how change had come and the progress that has been made in the past 50 years. While acknowledging that more change is still needed. PBS had some good specials on this past weekend about how some things have changed and/or stayed the same. Have a good weekend. CG

Patricia @ 9th and Denver said...

Catching up... enjoyed reading this...and thanks for the tip to read Minerva's blog too.
Both great posts.
Sadly, I think the message has been lost.
Pat

RURAL said...

A truly iconic speech that changed the world for the better.

He was an amazing man, gone too soon.

Oh, BTW,...found out George is in Cannes, and apparently got into a spot of trouble in Venice while driving a water taxi. Now George, if you had just stayed here, you would have been bored, but fine.

Jen

Chatty Crone said...

Don't you think he meant that our eyes should be colorblind?

Debby@Just Breathe said...

Wow, she wrote an amazing post. Thank you for sharing her with me. Debby

Linda @ Itsy Bits And Pieces said...

Great post, Ann...and I enjoyed Minerva's, too...brought many memories to mind. I lived in the south then, at a very volatile time...

Mullin Avenue Workshop said...

I love this, Ann.
That was very moving, to read the story behind his speech.
I will definitely check out Minerva's post.
Hugs,
Brenda

LeeAnn at Mrs Black's said...

Thank you for including my post here, I am honoured and humble that how I feel about Dr King has touched others after so many years. I hope that I am a credit to his memory. x