NOW! How Far Have We Really Come? | 50th Anniversary of the March On Washington

Part II of II

http://50thanniversarymarchonwashington.com

          We have come a great distance in this country in the 50 years, but we still have
          a great distance to go before we fulfill the dream of Martin Luther King, Jr.

          --Congressman John Lewis (D-GA), August 28, 2013

Yesterday and this past Saturday, some 50 years after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legendary “I Have A Dream” speech, two of his children that he referred to in the speech, together with other civil rights organizations and tens of thousands of individuals celebrated moments in history that helped America to come to grips with words from its 1776 Declaration of Independence,

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”[1]

On Saturday, August 24th, Martin King III and his sister, Rev. Bernice King, along with Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network and co-convener of the 50th Anniversary of the 1963 March On Washington, and a host of other civil rights organizations marched from the Lincoln Memorial to the newly erected Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial to remember and honor what happen on August 28, 1963. (See pictures from the 8/24/13 March On Washington)


Fifty years to the day of the actual 1963 March On Washington, many of the “march veterans” and foot soldiers who had participated in the original march locked arms with college students, and led thousands down the original path to the Lincoln Memorial to hear President Barack Obama, John Lewis and others speak about this watershed moment in the history of the Civil Rights movement. President Barack Obama told...


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Black History Month: How far have we come? Part 2--United States Senate

The Honorable Hiram Rhodes Revels has the honor of being the first African American to serve in the United States Congress as a Senator from Mississippi.  Mr. Revels was elected during Reconstruction in 1870 as a Republican. Prior to joining the Senate, he worked as a barber, educator, and an ordained minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.  He was also a veteran of the Civil War.  The story goes that Rev. Revels presented a remarkable opening prayer in the state legislature of Mississippi in 1870 that was one of the most impressive and eloquent prayers that had ever been delivered in the Mississippi Senate Chamber.  That prayer, it is said, made him a United States Senator.  Now that's something...to pray your way into office. 

In 1874, Mississippi elected its second African American to the U.S. Senate.  The Honorable Blanche Kelso Bruce served from 1875 to 1881.  He also was a Republican and the first African American to serve a full term in the Senate.  Although born into slavery in Prince Edward County, Virginia on March 1, 1841, he received his early education from a tutor that had been hired to educate his master's son.  At the beginning of the Civil War, he tried to enlist in the Union Army but was rejected because of his color.  So, he worked as a steamboat porter, established a school for blacks and attended two years of college at Oberlin in Ohio.  He moved to Mississippi in 1869 to become a cotton planter. During Reconstruction, he became a wealthy landowner and was appointed to several local positions.  As a Senator, Mr. Bruce supported "civil rights" for African Americans and Native Americans, and the desegregation of the U.S. Army. 

The Honorable Edward Brooke was elected by popular vote in Massachusetts in 1967 and served two terms in the Senate.  An alumnus of Howard University and Boston University, Mr. Brooke was also a commissioned officer in the U. S. Army during World War II.  He is the last African American Republican and the last Republican from Massachusetts to be elected to the Senate until Mr. Scott Brown's election in January 2010.  A tireless advocate against discrimination, he, along with Senator Walter Mondale, co-authored the 1968 Fair Housing Act which President Johnson signed into law on April 11, one week after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.  For his service, the former Senator was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. 

The Honorable Carol Moseley Braun, of Illinois, is the first and only African American woman to be elected to the Senate to date and the first African American Senator to be elected as a Democrat.  Before coming to the Senate, Ms. Braun held several public service positions in Illinois including Assistant United States Attorney and Assistant Majority Leader of the Illinois House of Representatives.  As a Senator from 1993 to 1999, she championed many causes including education and gun control issues.  After leaving the Senate, she was appointed by President Bill Clinton Ambassador to New Zealand. 

The Honorable Barack Hussein Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate in November 2004 in state of Illinois.  A graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, Mr. Obama worked as a civil rights attorney and law professor before coming to Washington, D.C.  In February 2007, Senator Obama announced his candidacy for the Democractic Presidential nomination.  In a historic election that culminated in November 2008, he was elected the 44th President of the United States. 


Mr. Roland W. Burris, Democrat, was appointed in December 2008 to serve the remainder of the term left vacant by former Senator Barack Obama.  This graduate of Southern Illinois University and Howard University Law School has more than 30 years of experience working in the public and private sector.  Most notably, he led a successful effort to create a Comptroller position for the U.S. Government.  He currently serves on the Armed Services Committee, the Veterans Affairs Committee and the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee.






Sources:
 http://www.senate.gov/pagelayout/history/h_multi_sections_and_teasers/Photo_Exhibit_African_American_Senators.htm
http://www.wikipedia.org/
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/serialset/cdocuments/sd107-11/pdf/44-45.pdf
http://burris.senate.gov/biography.cfm