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Happy birthday modern day Lincoln and Moses! Yeah I know he was a sinner just like all manufactured icons of history or
religion . I really loved Martin Luther King his family and all people of peace and dignity. Street names and holidays will never be enough to honor this often denounced man of God. He saw through the hate and the insults knowing many of us whites looked beyond color and in my case envied Rev. King , but his passing at the hands of a person who didn't deserve to shine his shoes was what made us sick.
It was written after Bobby Kennedy was assassinated. Very touching, actually. I was too young to remember JFK's assassination, but MLK I remember clearly. I was 8, and it frightened me and made me very sad. It was the first time something like this happened in my life, that I could remember clearly. I asked my sister why people hate, and all she could do was hug me while we cried. My parents did the same.
Then a few months later, it happened again with Bobby.
The song referenced in the thread title was composed by Dick Holler. He had been unsuccessful fronting his own bands, The Rockets and later The Holidays. Holler's only other claim to fame is as the composer of "Snoopy vs The Red Baron" which was a hit by The Royal Guardsmen.
The singer, Dion DiMucci, of course had achieved fame heading Dion and the Belmonts, (Runaround Sue, Teenager In Love, The Wanderer) but had peaked around 1960, lost his popularity, become a heroine addict and a hermit living in Key West, Florida.
In 1968, I was indulging myself attempting to be a stand up comic (I was an impressionist, they were big in those days). The University of Miami had an on campus coffee house called "The Flick" and I auditioned and was placed on the program that turned out to be headlined by....Dion DiMucci. This was about three months before "Abraham, Martin and John" suddenly vaulted Dion back into the national spotlight. He was pretty much thought of as a has been by then, so this wasn't that big of a deal. It turned out that he had recently had some transforming religious experience, had gotten clean, and his songs were mostly spiritualistic claptrap. He got polite applause but didn't really wow anyone. Then again, neither did I.
After his one comeback hit with "Abraham etc" he recorded a bunch of sober minded, religious themed born again albums which didn't sell.
I remember the song, and I'm still trying to figure out who "all the people" are that John freed.
The civil rights act passed in 1964, but it was considered JFK's bill. While technically he didn't "free" anyone, the act did eliminate segregation. It wasn't a strong act but it was hard fight, and when Lyndon Johnson signed it, it was a major victory.
The civil rights act passed in 1964, but it was considered JFK's bill. While technically he didn't "free" anyone, the act did eliminate segregation. It wasn't a strong act but it was hard fight, and when Lyndon Johnson signed it, it was a major victory.
You've got to be kidding me. You're swallowing too many of Oprah's movie lies.
That was never "considered" JFK's bill--bills which, BTW, originate in congress, not at the president's desk. A president can sign or not sign a bill. JFK refused to sign it (his brother RFK also advised him not to). Lyndon Johnson signed the bill. Period.
As the song says, you'll find Martin walking hand in hand over the crest of a hill with Abraham, John and Bobby. All representing the better angles of our nature who died before their time. A worthy partner to the Byrds song "He was a Friend of Mine"
You've got to be kidding me. You're swallowing too many of Oprah's movie lies.
That was never "considered" JFK's bill--bills which, BTW, originate in congress, not at the president's desk. A president can sign or not sign a bill. JFK refused to sign it (his brother RFK also advised him not to). Lyndon Johnson signed the bill. Period.
Let's chuck the revisionist history.
Indeed, you should check the history of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 carefully.
Here's what really happened. In 1963, President Kennedy proposed to Congress that it pass a civil rights bill. The many civil rights demonstrations in the deep south along with the violent response by the authorities were the impetus for Kennedy believing this law was needed. The devil though was in the details as it always is. Civil rights advocates wanted a very strong bill. They wanted one that would simultaneously deal with voting rights, employment rights, fair housing issues, and furnish them some federal protection against local police forces in southern states. No bill passed Congress during the Kennedy presidency. Opposition from southern senators prevented the bill from going anywhere in Congress. There were also conservatives up north who felt that some of the things that civil rights advocates wanted went too far and would give the federal government too much power.
Than on November 22, 1963, John Kennedy was assassinated.
Lyndon Johnson had years of experience as majority leader in the U.S. Senate before becoming President. He was intelligent enough to seize the moment. He made the argument that since civil rights was "Kennedy's Bill" that Congress should pass the law out of respect to a dead president. It took a great deal of wheeling and dealing by LBJ and by the democratic leaders in Congress to get the bill passed. Credit must also be given to the republican senate minority leader, Everett Dirksen. Dirksen worked with the democrats to come up with a bill that most members of his party could support and he was successful in doing it.
In the end, Congress stripped out voting rights, most protection from the police, and fair housing rights. They left in access to public accommodations and prohibitions against discrimination in employment.
The bill survived a filibuster from southerners in the Senate and easily passed the House.
Voting rights would be dealt with a year later in the Voting Rights Act. Housing issues would be dealt with in 1968 in the Fair Housing Act.
Most people remember the Vietnam War and the assassinations of the JFK, RFK, and MLK when they think of this period. However, the years of 1963-1968 were the years when full legal rights for minorities became established in our country. Kennedy deserves some credit for what occurred. However, Johnson, by far and away, is the reason these bills ever became law.
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