Hiatus

There are many news-worthy stories that need to be dissected and discussed. (Gaza cease fire, Bush commuting border patrol sentences, Timothy Geithner's tax problem, The Bachelor, etc.) I will hopefully cover those after tomorrow. For the moment, I am thoroughly enjoying history being laid out before me. I am trying to set aside my policy disagreements, snarky commentary, and taking a deep breath. There are few events in your life where you know your kids will eventually ask you where you were, what you were doing, how you felt, when they happened. Today and tomorrow are those days.

Today is Martin Luther King, Jr. day. As moms, we recognize that because our kids are out of school. But I hope we take a moment and recognize the transformation that has happened in our country over the past 200 years. It is amazing to me that it took 100 years after the Civil War, for the Civil Rights movement to make the changes the Emancipation Proclamation was geared towards. Over 100 years! Our parents grew up in segregation, "For Whites Only", or the "Separate but equal" era. And now less than 50 years later, we have elected a black President. In honor of Martin Luther King Jr., I would like to highlight a few of our nation's "First's".

Hiram Rhodes Revels, Republican Mississippi, 1870

Joseph Rainey, Republican South Carolina, 1870

During the Reconstruction era following the Civil War, black Americans seemed to make advances within the political system, filling the first seats in the House and Senate to be held by black men. Hiram Rhodes Revels only served one term in the US Senate, beginning in 1870, as the first black Senator. Although he championed noble causes of equality, all were shot down or overturned. In the same year, Joseph Rainey was elected the US House of Representatives from South Carolina. He served four terms, yet had the same misfortune Revels did in accomplishing any civil rights legislation. After the Reconstruction era ended, blacks returned to their second-class status, practically eliminating them from politics all together.

It wasn't until 1928 when Oscar Stanton de Priest was elected as the first post-Reconstruction US Congressman, from Illinois. (representing the south side of Chicago, no less). He served three consecutive terms, pushing anti-discrimination bills. Many failed, for example the anti-lynching bill. Yet, he had small but meaningful successes, such as the bill which permitted a transfer of jurisdiction if a defendant believed he or she could not get a fair trial because of race or religion.

Edward Brooke was the first post-Reconstruction black man elected to the US Senate. His accomplishments are extensive, so I'll only enumerate several. He co-authored the 1968 Fair Housing Act, which prohibited discrimination concerning the sale, rental, and financing of housing based on race, religion, national origin. He was the ranking Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, and also stood out as the first Republican to call for President Nixon's resignation, post-Watergate scandal. He not only fought for equality regarding race, but gender as well.

Thurgood Marshall was the first black man to serve in the US Supreme Court, appointed in 1967 by President Johnson. His resume preceded him, making huge strides within the Civil Rights movement. He laid the legal ground work, representing in landmark cases such as: Murray v. Pearson, Chambers v. Florida, and most famously Brown v. Board of Education. As a US Supreme Court Justice he took a strong stance against the death penalty and for the woman's right to abort. He served honorably for the next 24 years.

Shirley Chisholm was elected the first black woman to the US Congress in 1968, a democrat from New York. As a US Congresswoman she served on the Veteran's Affairs Committee, and Education and Labor Committee. In 1972 she ran for the Democratic Presidential Nomination in only 12 states, yet receiving 28 delegates during the Primaries. At the convention, Hubert Humphrey, who highly opposed McGovern, released his black delegates to Chisholm, which gave her a total of 152 delegates. Her comments regarding her bid, "in spite of hopeless odds, . . . I ran for office to demonstrate the sheer will and refusal to accept the status quo". The story which impressed me most was that of her visiting the infamous Governor George Wallace in the hospital after his assassination attempt. Her doing so, endeared him to her, which later helped her when she proposed a bill requiring a minimum wage for workers and needed his efforts persuading the southern congressmen.

There are so many more, including Douglas Wilder, first black Governor; Carol Moseley Braun, first black woman Senator; Colin Powell, first black Secretary of State, and now the first black President, Barack Obama. Have we realized Martin Luther King, Jr's dream of equality? Do we still find "the Negro still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land"? Has the "citizens of color" finally cashed the "check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice"? Have the "white people" realized "that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom"? Is today the day Dr. King saw when "all of God's children...will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Read the "I had a Dream" speech in it's entirety, here.